days after being diagnosed,” said senior study author Dr. Areej El-Jawahri.
“Because they face a grave decision, they need to understand what the risks of treatment are versus the possibility of a cure,” said El-Jawahri, an assistant professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Adult AML is a type of cancer generally seen in older people in which the bone marrow makes abnormal white blood cells, red blood cells or platelets. Chemotherapy, radiation, drug therapy or a stem cell transplant can be used as treatment, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Investigators focused on 100 AML patients. Half were in intensive care for four to six weeks, while the other half were mostly treated as outpatients. On average, patients were 71 years old.
Roughly three days after starting treatment, the patients and their doctors completed surveys.
More than