Mika T, et al. - Because poor prognosis in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is indicated by the failure of the first induction chemotherapy, researchers looked for a non-invasive way for the assessment of induction therapy in AML, focusing on the role of ratios of absolute cell counts of monocytes and neutrophils (MNR) in this context. They calculated MNR daily in 54 patients treated with “7 + 3” induction therapy and compared the values in patients with failure of the first induction therapy and patients with therapy response. A high correlation was evident between MNR following therapy and bone marrow results. With the right cut-off, MNR yielded a sensitivity of 83.3% and a specificity of 87.8% on day 18 for identifying first induction therapy failure and was established as a valid and reliable tool for detection of patients with failure of first induction therapy. As the needed cell counts were performed routinely for each patient undergoing intensive chemotherapy, MNR was free of cost.