Acute leukemia of the elderly, also known as acute high-risk leukemia of the elderly, is a high-risk disease of the hematologic system with a high mortality rate and poor prognosis that requires attention.
Why is acute leukemia in the elderly so dangerous? There are several reasons:
- Older patients with leukemia have reduced bone marrow hematopoietic function, degenerated heart, liver, kidney and other important organ functions, many comorbidities such as vascular sclerosis, coronary artery disease, diabetes mellitus, and other symptoms such as anemia and bleeding are obvious, especially prone to severe intracranial hemorrhage;
- The elderly have low body resistance and immune function, and are prone to bone marrow suppression, hypocellularity, and granulocyte deficiency after chemotherapy, which are more likely to cause life-threatening and severe infections;
- The elderly are poorly tolerant of chemotherapy, with reduced detoxification capacity of the liver and kidneys and slower drug excretion, which can easily lead to serious toxic side effects of chemotherapy drugs;
- A high rate of adverse genetic features in older patients with leukemia, for example, chromosome 5 and 7 abnormalities are frequently seen in acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia and up to 40% positive for chromosome Ph in acute lymphoblastic leukemia.