OBJECTIVES: Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) is a hematologic malignancy that proliferates in the bone marrow accumulating immature cells and suppressing the production of normal blood cells. The objective was to summarize the epidemiological burden of AML in G8 countries (United States, United Kingdom, Japan, France, Russia, Germany, Italy and Canada) as per geographical location and subgroup analysis.

METHODS: A targeted review was conducted with studies published in English using databases such as PubMed, Cochrane and EMBASE between 2009 and 2019. Real world evidence studies with reported data on the incidence, prevalence and mortality of AML patients were included. Additionally, data from country specific cancer databases such as SEER and Cancer research UK was obtained as a part of grey literature. All articles were independently screened for relevance and subsequently abstracted.

RESULTS: Thirty-five studies met the eligibility criteria and were included in this analysis. The incidence of AML ranged from 4.8 to 5.3 and 3.8 to 4.4 per 100,000 in the UK and US respectively. The mortality in both countries was close to 4.3 and 2.8 per 100,000 population in 2009-2016. In Canada, the incidence and mortality rates were 3.5 and 2.5 per 100,000 population. Further, significant differences were observed in subgroup analysis with higher epidemiological burden in males than females. Incidence and mortality were positively correlated with age as higher burden was found in age ≥ 60 years. Age and gender were the major risk factors for AML. There was scarcity of data for Italy and Russia and data for prevalence was also limited in the evidence synthesis.

CONCLUSIONS: Although AML is a rare type of cancer, this review reveals that its epidemiological burden is substantial in G8 countries. Further research is warranted on population based and longitudinal studies to address the gaps in the evidence for G8 countries.