Leukemia

Cancer Of The Blood?

Leukemia is a cancer of the blood. Medically it is described as a neoplasm of hematopoietic cells that originates within the soft tissue inside most bones called the bone marrow.  Although originating in the bone marrow it quickly spreads to the blood and is known as a cancer of the white blood cells.

While Leukemia starts in the bone marrow and then spreads to the blood, from there it can spread to the lymph nodes, liver, spleen, central nervous system, and other organs.
 While there are more than a dozen kinds of Leukemia, most cases can be sorted into four main types. These four major types are classified by the type of cell mainly affected (myeloid or lymphoid) and how quickly the disease develops and progresses (acute or chronic).

Treatments for these diseases vary with type, timing of diagnosis and how aggressive the cancer is determined to be. Survival rates also vary and with some types of cancer treatments depend on the age of the person and their individual response to the treatment.

Types And Treatments.

• Acute Lymphoblastic (ALL) is the most common type in young children but also affects adults, especially those aged 65 and older. Standard treatments involve radiation and chemotherapy and survival rates vary with age. Average statistics determine approximately 85% of children survive with treatment as opposed to 50% of adults.

• Chronic Lymphocytic (CLL) while sometimes occurring in younger adults this disease most often affects adults over 55 years of age and almost never affects children. Men account for two-thirds of the people affected. CLL although incurable, has many effective treatments available with an average five-year survival rate of 75%.

• Acute Myelogenous (AML) is more common in adults than in children, and men are affected more commonly than women. AML is treated with chemotherapy. The five-year survival rate is 40%

• Chronic Myelogenous  (CML) is mainly an adult disease with only very small numbers of children developing this disease. Drug treatment seems to work best with CML and produces a 90% five-year survival rate.

There are many other types of Leukemia however most are considered to be a subset of the above 4 types. These vary from the rare and indolent (not aggressive) types with very high survival rates to very rare and extremely aggressive types which are difficult to treat and sufferers usually only survive a few months. 

Signs and Symptoms

Depending on the type of Leukemia suffered symptoms vary widely.  Fatigue, anemia and weight loss, enlarged lymph nodes and excess bruising can be some of the initial symptoms experienced. Other noticeable symptoms may include infection, bone or joint pain, abnormal bleeding and abdominal pain or fullness.

The cancer itself does not cause these symptoms in many cases, but are a by product of a shortage of blood cells. Many individuals do not experience any noticeable signs or symptoms before being diagnosed with the disease, especially in chronic cases.

While there seem to be recognisable triggering factors in many instances it seems humans can contract the disease at any age. There are approximately 35,000 new patients diagnosed annually with some form of Leukemia.