Acute myeloid leukemia with myelodysplasia related changes

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous clonal disorder with two prominent features: i) hematopoietic progenitor cells loose the ability to differentiate normally and ii) the transformed leukemia cells show an impaired regulation of myeloid proliferation. AML with myelodysplasia-related changes is a subentity of AML that has a poor prognosis. It is characterized by a history of MDS, significant morphologic dysplasia, or MDS-related cytogenetic features such as -7/del(7q) and others. Whereas the prognosis of AML is quite different with respect to genetic aberrations, the therapy except of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is still relatively unchanged from 30 years ago. Therefore, new treatment strategies are needed.