Leukaemia is a cancer of the white blood cells, which are created by our bone marrow to fight infection in the body. The disease affects our bone marrow's ability to produce all types of healthy blood cells - including our red cells and platelets - as well as the white blood cells.
There are a few different types of leukaemia, but acute myeloid leukaemia - or AML for short - is one of two that tend to affect younger people. The other type is acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL).
AML gets its name from the white myeloid blood cell type where the cancer begins. It accounts for less than a quarter of leukaemia cases in young people and affects both sexes equally. Around 50 children and teenagers develop the condition a year in the UK.
Doctors often divide AML into a series of sub-types to help them plan the best level of treatment. The system most commonly used is one called FAB (short for French-American-British) classification, which is based on the type of myeloid cell that becomes cancerous and the stage of its development. So you maybe given the name of your subtype, they are M0, M1, M2 etc. through to M7.
The information in this section covers AML, but if you have a different type and want to know more, please contact us.
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