The universal prognostic factors in acute myeloid leukemia, as, however, in acute lymphoblastic leukemia and other tumors, is the treatment itself. Therapy should be adequate for doses of cytotoxic drugs, their combination, intervals and duration of treatment.

Inadequate chemotherapy is the only risk factor that is not associated with the biological characteristics of acute leukemia and patient status, and which, unfortunately, does not give chances for long-term survival to the majority of patients. It must be emphasized that the effects of inadequate therapy at the onset of the disease can never be corrected by further treatment, no matter how intense it is, because, as already discussed, the success of chemotherapy is determined by the intensity of the effect on the leukemic clone during the first stages of treatment.

The risk factors, which can also be called universal, include the patient’s age (especially over 60 years), the number of leukocytes in the onset of the disease (more than 30 • 109 / l), high levels of LDH in blood serum (more than 700 units), the period of previous myelodysplasia . Less common and not confirmed by all researchers are the signs by which the prognosis is assessed as follows: the presence of an infection before the start of chemotherapy, high serum creatinine or urine, severe hemorrhagic syndrome in the debut, neuroleukemia.

The morphological variant of acute myeloid leukemia is, of course, a fairly simple sign that allows an approximate assessment of the prognosis of a particular patient. Monoblastic, erythroblastic, megakaryoblastic, acute leukemias are quite unanimously classified as an unfavorable prognosis.

Standard induction chemotherapy is a classifying factor. After completing two courses of induction, patients are naturally divided into two groups: patients in complete remission and with a resistant form of acute myeloid leukemia. All patients with a resistant form of acute myeloid leukemia are in the group of poor prognosis.