Childhood Acute Myeloid Leukemia Treatment

At MD Anderson's Children's Cancer Hospital, we know your child's health and well-being are your number one concern. Our renowned experts customize your child's care for leukemia utilizing the most advanced treatments and techniques with the least impact on your child's growing body. As part of one of the world's most active cancer centers, the Children's Cancer Hospital has remarkable experience and skill in these types of cancer. This can make a difference in your child's outcome.

Customized leukemia care plans

A team of specially trained physicians follows your child throughout treatment, all the way to survivorship. They communicate closely with each other, and with you, to ensure comprehensive, personalized care. They are supported by full complement of health care professionals dedicated to your child's treatment, including nurses, physician assistants, therapists and others.

The Children's Cancer Hospital offers clinical trials for innovative new treatments for leukemia. Behind the scenes, we are working on groundbreaking basic science research to change the future of pediatric cancer.

Treating the whole child

The Children's Cancer Hospital is designed just for children, with a full range of services and amenities that help make the child’s and family's experience as comfortable as possible. We go beyond medical care to deliver a comprehensive experience that treats the whole child. Including camp programs, arts in medicine, music therapy and more.

And at the Children's Cancer Hospital, your child benefits from the resources and expertise of one of the nation's top cancer centers.

AML treatment plans

Treatment for newly diagnosed childhood AML patients typically focuses on chemotherapy.

Stem cell transplantation is also a treatment for AML. It can be an initial treatment for patients with particularly aggressive and hard-to-treat types of the disease. It is also given to patients with refractory AML (meaning the disease has not responded to standard treatments) or recurrent AML (meaning the disease was in remission but has returned). These patients can only undergo a stem cell transplant after achieving a remission with non-standard or experimental therapies. 

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy drugs kill cancer cells, control their growth or relieve disease-related symptoms. Chemotherapy may involve a single drug or a combination of two or more drugs, depending on the type of cancer and how fast it is growing.

Chemotherapy for AML is usually given in two stages:

• Induction: This is an intense phase of treatment designed to kill leukemia cells in the blood and bone marrow. It usually requires a hospital stay. The goal is to bring cancer into remission.
• Consolidation: This phase of chemotherapy is meant to kill any remaining cancer cells that survived the induction phase.

Patients will also be given a small dose of chemotherapy in their central nervous system to prevent the disease from spreading to this area. Stem cell transplant patients may also undergo chemotherapy to prepare their body for the procedure.

Read more about chemotherapy.

Targeted therapy

Targeted therapy drugs are designed to stop or slow the growth or spread of cancer. This happens on a cellular level. Cancer cells need specific molecules (often in the form of proteins) to survive, multiply and spread. These molecules are usually made by the genes that cause cancer, as well as the cells themselves. Targeted therapies are designed to interfere with, or target, these molecules or the cancer-causing genes that create them.

Learn more about targeted therapy.

Stem cell transplantation

A stem cell transplant (also known as a bone marrow transplant) is a procedure that replaces cancerous bone marrow with new, healthy bone marrow stem cells. Stem cell transplants are usually given after an intense round of chemotherapy that kills the patient’s existing bone marrow cells and prepares the body for transplant. Patients usually must stay in the hospital for three to four weeks after the procedure.

A stem cell transplant may be needed for patients whose leukemia has returned or has not responded to standard treatments. It may also be recommended if the patient has a high-risk form of leukemia that would make a cure with standard treatments unlikely. This treatment can be physically challenging, so it is typically not given to patients who are older or otherwise unhealthy.

Learn more about stem cell transplants.

Radiation therapy

Radiation therapy uses power beams of energy to kill cancer cells. Since leukemia cells travel in the blood stream, there is no distinct tumor to target with radiation therapy like there is other cancers. Instead, radiation is typically used when the disease has spread to the central nervous system.

Learn more about radiation therapy.

Clinical trials

As a top-ranked cancer center, MD Anderson offers multiple clinical trials for AML. Many of these cannot be found anywhere else. Trials explore new drug combinations and new drugs, including targeted therapies and immunotherapies.

Learn more about clinical trials.

Some cases of leukemia can be passed down from one generation to the next. Genetic counseling may be right for you. Learn more about the risk to you and your family on our genetic testing page.