[Acute myeloblastic leukemia in adults: a cure in sight?]

The author inquires what the chances are in 1980 of curing acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML) in adults. Efforts toward curative treatment are chiefly concentrated in three places: the basic science laboratories, the clinical laboratories, and the bedside. It remains an open question from which quarter the decisive findings for the prevention or cure of AML will come. For the time being, only clinical trials offer substantial help to AML sufferers. A small number of patients achieve many years of remission and are perhaps even cured, but it is impossible to predict what patients can expect longterm remissions. Painstaking investigation of this group of patients may provide the clue to curative treatment for AML as early as the present decade.