Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) is one of the most lethal blood cancers that starts in your bone marrow.  Normally, healthy bone marrow is filled with many types of cells, including red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets.  Red blood cells are made in the bone marrow and carry oxygen from the lungs to all other tissues in the body and take carbon dioxide back to the lungs to be removed. White blood cells are also made in the bone marrow and help the body fight infections and other diseases. Platelets are small, colorless cell fragments in our blood that form clots and stop or prevent bleeding. Platelets are made in our bone marrow, the sponge-like tissue inside our bones. When you have AML, cancer cells don’t die when they should. Instead, they multiply to build up in your bone marrow and eventually crowd out these normal healthy cells. According to the National Cancer Institute, AML strikes about 20,000 people per year in the United States, and kills more than 11,000.  It mainly affects middle-aged and older adults. The five-year survival rate is about 30 percent overall, but only about 10 percent for patients older than 65.