An acute myeloid leukemia diagnosis (AML) in May 2016 came as no real surprise to Julia Dutton. She’d been fighting debilitating fatigue for a couple of weeks. Then her gums became so painful and swollen, “they felt like balloons and looked like if you stuck them with a pin, they’d pop,” Julia says.

Thinking she had a gum infection, Julia went to her dentist for a teeth cleaning. That brought no relief. When her vision became blurry...