What is AML?

Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is a cancer that affects the normal bone marrow that produces red blood cells, platelets and white blood cells. It suppresses the production and function of normal red blood cells, platelets, and white blood cells (neutrophils).

You can access further information about AML, including risk factors, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment from Cancer Council Victoria. You can also call our trusted cancer nurses on 13 11 20 for support and to learn about our range of services for people affected by cancer.

The Victorian Cancer Registry also operates an interactive web portal, Data Explorer, which provides more trends and statistics than published here.

How common is AML?

In 2024, 293 Victorians were diagnosed with AML. Of these, there were 143 males and 150 females, representing 49% and 51% of the total Victorian AML diagnoses, respectively. Currently, AML is diagnosed at a rate of 3.5 per 100,000 males and 3.5 per 100,000 females. The median age at diagnosis of AML is 70 years in males and 69 in females (Figure 1 & 2). Accounting for 0.73% of all cancers diagnosed and 1.6% of all cancer-related deaths in 2024, AML was the 28th most commonly diagnosed cancer and the 19th most common cause of cancer-related deaths in Victoria in 2024.

Trends in AML over time

Figure 3a shows for males between 2000 to 2024 the age standardised incidence rate of AML declined by an average of 0.67% per year.

For females between 2004 to 2024 the age standardised incidence rate of AML declined by an average of 0.73% per year. However this result wasn’t statistically significant, meaning the change cannot be confidently considered real and may be due to random fluctuations.

Geographical variance in AML by local government area

Figure 4 demonstrates variation in the estimated risk of being diagnosed with AML, by local government area, relative to the Victorian average. Red shading indicates areas with higher risk and blue shading indicates areas with lower risk relative to Victoria.

AML in people born overseas

Figure 5 shows the standardised incidence ratios (SIRs) of AML in Australian-born Victorians compared to other major migrant groups, over the five-year period 2019 to 2023. The highest standardised incidence ratio (SIR) for AML was 1.2 for males born in the Other Europe region and the lowest SIR of 0.26 was observed in males born in the North America region. The highest standardised incidence ratio (SIR) for AML was 1.5 for females born in the Middle East and North Africa region and the lowest SIR of 0.73 was observed in females born in the Africa region.

AML five-year relative survival

Figure 6 shows the change in 5-year survival for AML, and the 5-year survival trend for all cancers over the same time period. It demonstrates that five-year relative survival has increased for AML between 1985-1989 and 2020-2024 from 13% to 31%.