Acute myeloid leukemia, or AML, is a rare and aggressive cancer that can affect people of all ages. Kiran Vanaja, an assistant research professor in bioengineering at Northeastern University, says that AML also has a high recurrence rate and no one-size-fits-all treatment option.
Because AML impacts both blood and bone marrow, oncologists need samples of both through blood draws and a bone marrow aspiration to determine the disease’s particular genetic makeup and which treatment might be most appropriate. It can often take a month or more after diagnosis for those with AML to start receiving potentially life-saving treatment. The cancer’s “median age of survival is less than five years after initial diagnosis,” according to Vanaja, so time is of the essence.
Based out of Northeastern’s Roux…