Acute myelogenous leukemia is a heterogenous disease which is reflected in cellular phenotypes, surface markers, cytogenetic abnormalities and clinical pictures. This heterogenecity is also reflected in the response to therapy. In this study treatment response and prognostic factors were evaluated in 51 children with acute myeloblastic leukemia (M1 and M2). During the period from 1975-1995, 127 children with acute myelogenous leukemia were diagnosed and treated with a minimal observation time of one year. Evaluation established five morphological types of AML, from M1 to M5, according to FAB classification. 51(40%) of them were M1 (21%) and M2 (18,8%) type. Two treatment regimes were administered: monochemotherapy with Daunoblastin(29/56,8%) and BFM-83 (22/43%). The analysis of group with early failure marked a very high percentage of 37% (M1-11/21%, M2-8/15,7%) with massive visceral bleeding and insufficient hematologic reconstitution.

Complete remission was observed in 43% of the patients, however if the group with early failure is excluded, complete remission rate was 68,7%.

The most important prognostic parameters influence of the rate of complete remission and total survival are hyperleucocytosis and age below two years.