More than 90 percent of children and young adults who survive five years or longer after diagnosis and treatment for acute myeloid leukemia are alive 20 years later and leading productive lives, according to a University of Minnesota study.

The study is one of the largest and most comprehensive recorded, analyzing 20-years of follow-up on survivors who were diagnosed and treated for AML as children and young adults.

Daniel Mulrooney, M.D., a pediatric oncologist and researcher at the University of Minnesota’s Medical School and Masonic Cancer Center, led the research team on this study.

"The favorable survival rates indicate the progress that has been made in the diagnosis and treatment of AML in children and young adults," Mulrooney said.

Leukemia is the most common cancer affecting children and young adults. AML, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow, accounts for about 25 percent of all childhood leukemia cases.

The University of Minnesota study is the first to analyze, over the long term, the survival, medical late effects, marriage, education, and employment rates of AML survivors compared with a control group of their siblings. Mulrooney and his colleagues evaluated 272 AML survivors enrolled in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study.

The findings are published in the May journal of Cancer.