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Originally Posted by cjfaust
My Dad was diagnosed with aml last November at the age of 90. Somewhere along the way it was changed to cmml. Today, it became acute leukemia. Previously, it was just his read blood cells and transfusions help greatly. Now the concern is his white blood cells and I am sooooooooooo confused!
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Hello, cjfaust.
AML is the same thing as acute leukemia, so the diagnosis alternated between that and chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML). They and the other forms of MDS are related, and the classification schemes are used to categorize treatment studies, make informed decisions about treatment, and give us some idea about expected survival.
Given your dad's age, treatment choices are limited, so the doctors may recommend only supportive care (transfusions) rather than aggressive drug treatments that could attack the disease but could be highly risky or reduce quality of life. What have the doctors suggested?
There is a good summary of the types of MDS, including CMML, at
this Leukaemia Research Fund page. I particularly recommend that you read the Appendix about the International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS) and that you ask your dad's doctor what his IPSS score is (low-risk, intermediate-1, intermediate-2, or high-risk), to give you a realistic assessment. Remember that statistics you read in charts apply to groups of patients but don't tell you what will happen to any one individual.