Approximately 12,000 new cases of acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) will be diagnosed this year in the United States; over 90% of these will be in adults. The risk for developing the disease increases about 10-fold from age 30 (1 case per 100,000) to age 65 (1 case per 10,000), and the median age of a patient with AML is 70 years.

Most cases have no apparent cause, although several factors have been associated with an increased risk of AML including irradiation, occupational chemicals such as benzyne, chemotherapeutic agents (especially alkylating agents and topoisomerase II inhibitors), immunosuppression, myeloproliferative diseases, and myelodysplasia. . . . [Full Text of this Article]