Results of intensive chemotherapy in 998 patients age 65 years or older with acute myeloid leukemia or high‐risk myelodysplastic syndrome:

Elderly patients (age ≥ 65 years) with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) generally have a poor prognosis. AML‐type therapy results are often derived from studies in younger patients and may not apply to elderly AML. Many investigators and oncologists advocate, at times, only supportive care or frontline single agents, Phase I–II studies, low‐intensity regimens, or ‘targeted’ therapies. However, baseline expectations for outcomes of elderly AML with ‘standard’ AML‐type therapy are not well defined. The aim was to develop prognostic models for complete response (CR), induction (8‐week) mortality, and survival rates in elderly AML, which would be used to advise oncologists and patients of expectations with standard AML type therapy, and to establish baseline therapy results against which novel strategies would be evaluated.