The demarcation between younger and older acute myeloid leukemia patients: A pooled analysis of 3 prospective studies

BACKGROUND Contemporary treatment protocols for adult acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are age‐specific, and older patients are generally treated less intensively than younger patients. However, it remains uncertain whether older but fit patients with AML really need to have their treatment attenuated. METHODS To evaluate the contribution of age to outcome for patients with AML receiving intensive chemotherapy, data were analyzed for 2276 patients aged less than 65 years who were treated uniformly, regardless of age, in 3 consecutive prospective studies conducted by the Japan Adult Leukemia Study Group. RESULTS A substantial drop in overall survival (OS) between patients aged 40 to 49 years and 50 to 64 years led to a focus on 2 comparisons: 1) age