The survival rates of 434 acute leukemia patients who were diagnosed and treated at
the Kyungpook National University Hospital between 1 January 1981 and 30 December
1991 were analyzed by the Kaplan-Meier method.
Acute myeloblastic leukemia accounted for 62.4% (M1 5.2%, M2 32.7%, M3 14.1%,
M43.7%, M5 5.5%, M6 1.4%) and acute lymphoblastic leukemia 37.6% (Ll 7.6%, L2
30.0%, L3 0.0%). Male to Female ratio of all patients was 1.27:1. The sex ratios for M1
and M2 were 3.4:1, 1.4:1, respectively and these ratios were statistically significant
(P<0.05). Mean age for all acute myeloblastic leukemia(AML) was 36.7 years and for all
acute lymphoblastic leukemia(ALL) 26.0 years. Median survival time for AML patients
was 3.0 months (M1 2.0, M2 4.2, M3 1.2, M4 5.8, M5 2.6, M6 2.3 months) and 9.9
months for ALL patients (Ll 17.2, L2 9.0 months). Factor significantly associated with
survival time by the Cox proportional hazard model were type of leukemia (longer for
ALL than AML), age at diagnosis (the younger, the longer) and percentage of blasts in
peripheral blood smear at diagnosis (the lower, the longer).

Keywords: Acute leukemia, FAB classification, Survival rates