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With the aim of describing an unselected series of acute myeloid leukaemias (AML) in adults, patients diagnosed 1987-1992 in the &Oouml;rebro region of central Sweden were reviewed by investigating hospital records. By utilizing: (1) The Swedish Cancer Registry, (2) The Cause of Death Registry, (3) listings of pathology bone marrow reports and (4) listings of inpatient discharge diagnoses, we attempted to find all patients. Among secondary AML, only blast-crises of CML were excluded. A total of 214 cases of AML with a median age of 69.5 years were verified corresponding to a mean yearly incidence in adults of 5.4/100 000. Of all patients, 56% had received 'high-dose' induction treatment, 28% 'low-dose' treatment and 16% no cytostatic treatment. Median survival for all patients was 5.8 months and the probability of survival at 5 years was 9.3%. The 120 'high-dose' treated patients had a total CR rate of 67%, median CR duration 10.1 months and median survival 11.4 months. Age, LDH and kidney function were found to be independent prognostic variables for survival. The inclusion of patients unreferred from district hospitals makes this study unique as an example of unselected AML. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]