Leukemia

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Leukemia

• By Timmer McCarthy

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What is Leukemia?

• Leukemia is cancer found in the blood cells
• There are many types of Leukemia
• They are classified by how quickly they progress
  and what type of cell they affect

• Leukemia is causes when there is an imbalance of
  healthy unhealthy blood cells in the body
• This occur when one cell awry and the body begins
  to produce large numbers of this cell

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Types of Leukemia

• Based on how quickly the disease develops it is
  classified as either acute or chronic
• In Acute Leukemia the white blood cells tend to
  develop more rapidly and very immature
• In Chronic Leukemia the cells tend to develop
  more slowly

• They are also classified by which type of white
  bloods cells are affected
• If the lymphoid cells are affected the disease is
  referred to as Lymphocytic Leukemia
• If the myeloid cells are affected it is called
  Myelongenous Leukemia

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Risk Factors

• As of now we do not no the exact cause of
  Leukemia
• Exposure to these have been identified as risk
  factors
• High energy radiation
• Some genetic syndromes
• People working with chemical benzene for a long
  period of time

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Diagnosis

• As immature cells increase in the body leads to
  lower amounts of red blood cells and platelet
  cells
• The low amounts of red blood cells cause patient
  to be tired and pale
• Low amounts of platelet cells cause the patient
  to easily bruise or bleed
• During a physical exam the doctor detects swollen
  spleen, liver, or lymph nodes
• Then there is a blood test conducted to see if it
  is leukemia
• The type of Leukemia is determined after bone
  marrow is extracted and tested

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Treatment

• As of yet there is no cure for Leukemia
• Many advances have been made in the past couple
  years
• The survival rate of children with Acute
  Lymphocytic is around 82

• Treatments include
• Chemotherapy
• Radiotherapy
• Bone marrow transplant