What My Sister's Keeper Can Teach Us About Leukemia

On screen

In My Sister's Keeper, a young girl named Kate lives with acute promyelocytic leukemia, a type of acute myeloid leukemia. Much of the story centers on her family — including her younger sister Anna, and the difficult questions the family faces as they navigate Kate's illness and treatment together. It's an emotional film about love, sacrifice, and the choices families make.

The diagnosis at its heart is real, and it's a chance to learn what leukemia actually is.

The reality

The National Cancer Institute describes leukemia as a broad term for cancers of the blood cells. The type of leukemia depends on which kind of blood cell becomes cancer and whether the cancer grows quickly or slowly.

The NCI notes that leukemia occurs most often in adults older than 55, but it is also the most common cancer in children younger than 15 — which is why it appears so often in stories about young patients.

The NCI groups the main leukemias by how fast they grow (acute or chronic) and by the cell type involved (lymphoblastic/lymphocytic or myeloid), and provides treatment information for each, including:

• Acute lymphoblastic leukemia
• Acute myeloid leukemia — the broader category that includes the acute promyelocytic leukemia in Kate's story
• Chronic lymphocytic leukemia
• Chronic myeloid leukemia
• Hairy cell leukemia
• Childhood forms of acute lymphoblastic and acute myeloid leukemia

Because leukemia is a cancer of the blood cells rather than a solid tumor in one location, it is understood and treated differently from many other cancers.

What the story gets right — and what to remember

My Sister's Keeper gets an emotional reality right: a serious leukemia diagnosis affects a whole family, not just the person who is ill. Treatment decisions can be complex and deeply personal.

But the film is a drama, and it compresses years of a real illness into a single story shaped for the screen. Some of its plot choices are fictional devices rather than medical fact. Real leukemia varies by type, by how quickly it grows, by age, and by treatment — and every family's experience is different. A movie is not a medical account or a prediction, and nothing here is medical advice.

Awareness, screening & prevention

The NCI is clear on this point, and it's worth stating plainly: NCI does not have PDQ evidence-based information about screening for leukemia, and it does not have PDQ evidence-based information about prevention of leukemia. For general context, the NCI points readers to its broader Cancer Screening Overview and Cancer Prevention Overview.

In other words, there is no routine screening test for leukemia the way there is for some other cancers. Anyone with persistent or unexplained symptoms should raise them with a healthcare team rather than trying to self-assess.

Turning a story into something useful

Kate's story lingers because it's really about a family holding on to each other. If it moves you, let it lead somewhere real: learn the facts from trustworthy sources, and lean on and support the people around you when illness touches a family. Supporting free, accurate cancer education helps the next family find honest answers when they need them most.

Questions to ask a healthcare team

• What specific type of leukemia is this, and is it fast-growing (acute) or slow-growing (chronic)?
• What treatment options are recommended, and might a stem cell transplant be involved?
• What support is available for the whole family during treatment?
• What symptoms or changes should we report right away?