How would you describe leukemia?

How would you describe leukemia?

Leukemia is cancer of the body’s blood-forming tissues, including the bone marrow and the lymphatic system. Many types of leukemia exist. Some forms of leukemia are more common in children. Other forms of leukemia occur mostly in adults. Leukemia usually involves the white blood cells.

What are the main causes of leukemia?

Risk factors that can cause leukemia

• A genetic predisposition.
• Down syndrome.
• Human T-lymphotropic virus (HTLV)
• Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
• Exposure to petrochemicals, such as benzene.
• Extensive exposure to artificial ionizing radiation.
• Alkylating chemotherapy agents administered to treat other types of cancer.

What were your first symptoms of leukemia?

Early Symptoms of Acute Leukemia

• Shortness of breath.
• Fatigue.
• Unexplained fever.
• Night sweats.
• Unexplained weight loss.
• Loss of appetite.
• Bone pain.
• Bruising.

What is leukemia in simple words?

(loo-KEE-mee-uh) Cancer that starts in blood-forming tissue, such as the bone marrow, and causes large numbers of abnormal blood cells to be produced and enter the bloodstream.

What happens to children with leukemia?

Kids with leukemia may get more viral or bacterial infections than other kids. These happen because their white blood cells can’t fight infections. They also may get anemia, which is when there’s a low number of red blood cells. This happens because leukemia cells crowd the bone marrow.

Leukemia is a type of cancer found in your blood and bone marrow and is caused by the rapid production of abnormal white blood cells. These abnormal white blood cells are not able to fight infection and impair the ability of the bone marrow to produce red blood cells and platelets.

What does it mean to have leukemia in your blood?

blood disease: Leukemia. Leukemia is a potentially fatal disease of the blood-forming tissues. The term leukemia means “white blood” and arose from the discovery of extremely large numbers of white blood cells in the blood of certain persons; counts as high as 500,000 per cubic millimetre and….

Where are the white blood cells found in leukemia?

White blood cells help your body fight infection. Your blood cells form in your bone marrow. In leukemia, the bone marrow produces abnormal white blood cells. These cells crowd out the healthy blood cells, making it hard for blood to do its work.

How are the different types of leukemia classified?

Doctors classify leukemia based on its speed of progression and the type of cells involved. The first type of classification is by how fast the leukemia progresses: Acute leukemia. In acute leukemia, the abnormal blood cells are immature blood cells (blasts).

What are the symptoms of acute and chronic leukemia?

Leukemia. Acute leukemias affect immature cells; the disease develops rapidly, with symptoms including anemia, fever, bleeding, and swelling of the lymph nodes. Immature leukemia cells continue to divide in the bone marrow, which leads to rapid death if left untreated. In chronic leukemia the cells develop and are transported to the tissues,…

What can a person do to get leukemia?

• and chronic myeloid leukemia.
• Smoking.
• CT scans.
• Benzene.
• Chemotherapy.
• Inherited diseases.
• Medical history.
• Viral infections.
• Family history.

  How does leukemia kill a person?

  Studies show that for leukemia patients, infections were the most common cause of death, most often bacterial infections but also fungal infections or a combination of the two. Bleeding was also a fairly common cause of death, often in the brain, lungs or digestive tract.

  How fast does leukemia kill you?

  Probably about the fastest is a type of lung cancer called small cell lung carcinoma where, untreated, death is usual in weeks. Acute leukemia, untreated, can kill in days, although weeks is probably more likely.

  What are the different types of leukemia?

  People with a family history of leukemia are also at higher risk. There are four main types of leukemia— acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), acute myeloid leukemia ( AML ), chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and chronic myeloid leukemia (CML)—as well as a number of less common types.