An AML diagnosis can be devastating, but biomarker testing is bringing hope to patients by helping to guide more personalized treatment.
Acute myeloid leukemia, or AML is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow and progresses rapidly if untreated. While it’s the most common type of acute leukemia in adults, AML is relatively rare. In Canada, approximately 1,650 people (excluding Nova Scotia) were diagnosed with AML in 2023.
When Maya Traykova-Andonova, 78, was diagnosed with AML nearly three years ago, one of the first things she noticed was how profoundly her diagnosis affected her husband and daughter.
“The emotional effect was much higher than the physical,” she says. “And seeing how my husband accepted the news was heartbreaking.”
After initially entering remission, Maya relapsed in 2025 and experienced a rapid physical decline. “I had no energy and a lot of pain,” she says. “My body was stiff all the time. I couldn’t walk by myself, so I needed a walker. I had no appetite. I lost around 20 pounds. I thought to myself, ‘This is the end coming.’”
Understanding AML and the role of precision medicine
“What makes AML particularly challenging is that it is not one disease,” says Dr. Jennifer Croden, an assistant professor in the Division of Hematology at the University of Alberta. “Two patients can both have AML but have completely different genetic or biologic features driving their leukemia.”
As a result, Dr. Croden explains that AML treatment has moved away from a one-size-fits-all approach toward an understanding of the individual biology of each patient’s leukemia.
“Precision medicine means trying to understand what is specifically driving an individual person’s disease, in this case AML, and then using that information to help determine the most appropriate treatment for that particular patient,” says Dr. Croden.
“We’ve made progress and there’s a lot of hope.”
The importance of biomarker testing
“Biomarker testing is a way of looking at the biological features present in an individual’s AML cells, including the genetic changes inside that particular leukemia,” says Dr. Croden. “It’s a way of better understanding the specific characteristics of the disease.”
These findings can help health care practitioners tailor treatment for patients.
“It’s important that this testing is performed at diagnosis or as early as possible, because the results can directly influence the treatment decision,” says Dr. Croden. She adds that “some mutations are directly targetable” with medication, while others “still tell us something about the biology or the prognosis of the leukemia and help us determine the most appropriate treatment strategy.”
In Maya’s case, genetic analysis identified two mutations, and additional testing was performed when her AML relapsed. “This is a remarkable achievement of science, I’d say,” she says. Within a month on a new targeted treatment, Maya began to feel more like herself. “I was able to travel for two months this year, which is great,” she says.
“The treatments that we’re using today are very different from what we were using even a few years ago,” says Dr. Croden. “We’ve made progress and there’s a lot of hope.”
This article was made possible with the support of Servier Canada.