Impact of a Simplified Patient Care Strategy to Decrease Early Deaths in Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (APL) by Maintaining a Database

Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is a very rare type of leukemia. Because it is so rare, many doctors do not have experience treating it. APL has been shown to be curable most of the time. Unfortunately, some patients die early after they become sick with APL, sometimes even before starting treatment. The early period is from the time of diagnosis through the first treatments for the disease. This is approximately 30 days. Early deaths are often due to complications caused by of the effects of leukemia and the treatments of it. These complications may not be noticed quickly by doctors who don't have much experience with managing APL. The purpose of this study is to collect information about the diagnosis and management of APL patients by review of their medical records. This information will be stored in a central database at Emory University. This data will be analyzed to discover the impact of increased physician knowledge of recommended management of APL. The goal is to reduce the events of early death of APL patients.