 Further advances in the understanding of acute myeloid leukemia occurred rapidly with the development of new technology . In 1877 , Paul Ehrlich developed a technique of staining blood films which allowed him to describe in detail normal and abnormal white blood cells . Wilhelm <unk> introduced the term " acute leukemia " in 1889 to differentiate rapidly progressive and fatal leukemias from the more <unk> chronic leukemias . The term " myeloid " was coined by Franz Ernst Christian Neumann in 1869 , as he was the first to recognize white blood cells were made in the bone marrow ( Greek : <unk> , <unk> = ( bone ) marrow ) as opposed to the spleen . The technique of bone marrow examination to <unk> leukemia was first described in 1879 by <unk> . Finally , in 1900 , the myeloblast , which is the malignant cell in AML , was characterized by Otto <unk> , who divided the leukemias into myeloid and <unk> . 
