LAUSR

43Background: Older patients ( > 60 years) with AML face difficult treatment decisions as they can be treated either with risky multi-drug “intensive” chemotherapy for a small chance of a cure, or “non-intensive” and non-curative palliative chemotherapy. However, studies have not described patients’ understanding of their prognosis and treatment risk. Methods: We conducted a longitudinal study of older patients newly diagnosed with AML at two tertiary care hospitals. At enrollment, we assessed patients’ and oncologists’ perception of treatment-related mortality. At one month, we assessed patients’ and oncologists’ perception of prognosis using the Prognosis and Treatment Perception Questionnaire. Results: We enrolled consecutive patients within 72 hours of initiating intensive (n = 50) or non-intensive (n = 50) chemotherapy. The majority of patients reported that it is ‘somewhat’ (58/92, 63.0%) or ‘extremely’ (26/92, 28.3%) likely to die due to treatment while their oncologists reported that it is ‘very u...