Leukemia is one type of cancer that starts in your bone marrow or another tissue which forms blood.
National Cancer Institute. Leukemia.
Your bone marrow makes platelets, red blood cells, and white blood cells. Scientists don’t know why your bone marrow begins to make bad cells instead of good ones. They do know that several risk factors, such as getting older, increase your chances of getting leukemia.
The main cause of leukemia symptoms is the insufficient synthesis of healthy blood cells.
A few of the common symptoms include fatigue, fever, night sweats, weight loss, and easy bruising or bleeding. There is an overproduction of cancerous cells in the bone marrow.
Your doctor can diagnose leukemia symptoms using blood tests and physical examinations to assist you in selecting the best treatment plan.
Types of Leukemia
Leukemia can present in many different forms depending on the type of blood cell affected and the rate at which cancer cells proliferate. Either immature blood cells known as myeloid cells
cells eventually mature into white blood cells, red blood cells, or platelets or lymphocytes, a unique subset of white blood cells that leukemia may affect. Leukemia can also be acute, which progresses rapidly, chronic, or develops slowly.
- The most common type in children is acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL).
- Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is more common with increasing age, though it may occur at any age, even in children.
- The most common form of adult leukemia, chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), tends to present later in life.
- Adults acquire chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) after middle age.
- Most of the cases of CMML develop after 60 years and more predominantly in males
The different types of leukemias will determine what particular blood cells will be attacked by the tumor and how fast would be the progression of that disease.
Symptoms and signs
Some of your symptoms will depend on the type of leukemia you have. Nonetheless, the majority of leukemia patients exhibit comparable symptoms. Among them are:
- Fatigue and fever
- Sweating at night
- Simple bruising or bleeding
- Unknown weight loss
- Appetite loss
- Petechiae, which are little red spots on the skin.
Small tiny red dots on the skin are known as petechiae.
Anemia is a condition that limits the oxygen supply that your body can provide to your organs. It may also result from your leukemia interfering with the production of red blood cells. A few
Anemia symptoms are:
- Headaches and Fatigue
- Breathlessness
- Light-colored skin
- Feeling cold
You may be experiencing leukopenia in case your leukemia is decreasing your white blood cell counts. You may have some symptoms,
- such as frequent infections.
- High fever and night perspiration
- Shivering and body aches
- Any cuts or sores on your skin
Low platelet counts caused by leukemia increase the risk of bleeding. The purpose of platelets, which are blood cells, is to aid in blood coagulation and so stop bleeding. The symptoms listed below could manifest when they are low:
- Simple bruises or bleeding
- Nose bleeding Bleeding gums
- Long-term cases of heavy stools
- Blood in your urine or feces
- A larger spleen
Reasons
The result of your bone marrow and blood-forming tissues producing cancer cells is leukemia. It indicates that these cancerous cells are leaking into your blood, therefore
changing your red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. Although the medical cause of leukemia is unidentified, specialists have identified a few risk factors that could improve your chances of developing the condition.
Risk Factors
Some of the risk factors for anemia are given being
- High radiation exposure increases the chance of getting acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL).
- Chemical exposure: Chemicals such as benzene and chemotherapy increase the chances of leukemia.
- Viruses: Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and human T-cell lymphoma/leukemia virus-1 (HTLV-1) have been associated with a higher risk of leukemia
- Genetics: If your twin sibling or sister has leukemia, you are more likely to develop its symptoms.
suffers from the disease too. Your chances of acquiring ALL may also be enhanced by inherited syndromes like ataxia-telangiectasia, Fanconi anemia, Klinefelter syndrome, and Down syndrome.
- Age: Leukemia occurs in more chances after fifty years, but still, the tendency to have ALL is highly increased under fifteen years.
Ethnicity and race: Chances are more common with white as compared to a black man.
- Sex: It has more tendency to increase the chances for those people assigned male against those who were allocated female.
making a diagnosis
- There are numerous tests that medical professionals use to diagnose leukemia. Some of them include
- Physical examination: The doctor will conduct a full physical examination, paying attention to any bleeding, bruising, or swollen lymph nodes, since leukemia presents physically
- Medical history: Your physician will ask about your symptoms, lifestyle changes, any family medical history, and your own medical background.
- Blood Tests: Because of your deficiency in leukemia, your doctor can run a complete blood count test to establish if there are red blood cells, white blood cells, or platelets available in the body.
- Bone marrow tests: A bone marrow biopsy and aspiration are considered when establishing whether malignant cells exist in the bone marrow.
- Genetic testing: Because certain inherited issues can raise your risk of leukemia, your doctor may suggest genetic testing to find any gene or chromosome abnormalities that could raise that risk.
Counseling
Fortunately, there is hope for the disease, and remission—the time during which symptoms are absent—is reversible. The type and degree of your disease will depend on your prognosis, or how your disease will probably progress.
of your leukemia. Your age and medical condition will also decide what therapeutic options are most suited to you.
Chemotherapy
For majority leukemia patients, chemotherapy shall be the initial course of treatment. Chemotherapy occurs in three stages that involve;
- Induction: A very aggressive, a one-week treatment initiation in the case of acute lymphocytic leukemia, (AML), and in case of acute lymphocytic leukemia, ALL, treatment initiation is required to take up to a one month period.
- For both AML and ALL, consolidation refers to months of intense treatment.
- Maintenance: less intensive treatment for two years, typically limited to acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL).
using Stem Cell TransplantationUs
Leukemia cells may sometimes be eradicated with high doses of chemotherapy and radiation. An infusion of stem cells can be given after these treatments to help the bone.
Marrow is renewed with new, healthy cells. If the chemotherapy fails, your doctor may consider a stem cell transplant.
Targeted Therapy
The foundation of targeted therapy is drugs and other substances that specifically target and destroy cancer cells. The idea is to treat the cells without putting healthy cells in danger or harming them.
Radiation Therapy
Radiation therapy is not usually included in the core treatment plan for leukemia patients.
However, in preparing for a stem cell transplant, your doctor might recommend the use of
chemotherapy and radiation treatment.6.
Leukemia Prevention Strategies
It is impossible to avoid leukemia. This is because most of the risk factors, such as age, race, and heredity, are out of an individual’s control. Moreover, because most patients have no known risk factors, leukemia is hard to prevent.
Receiving chemotherapy and radiation treatments for other cancers raises your risk of developing leukemia. However, your doctor won’t advise you to ignore or forego cancer treatment in order to prevent contracting it again.
Radiation exposure from imaging exams also increases your chance of leukemia.
If you need a lot of computed tomography or X-rays, and you’re at risk for certain types of cancers, talk to your doctor about reducing the number of those procedures.
Having leukemia
Leukemia diagnosis can really change the life of any person, and treatment can vary from a few months up to several years. Therefore, feelings of powerlessness, hopelessness, anger, fear, sadness, and
They are all OK, and loneliness is fairly common.
It is important to seek help along the way. Collaborate with your healthcare team to get assistance with scheduling appointments and financial support. Do not forget to ask for a referral to a mental health professional either. Seek support from your friends and family with daily tasks, childcare, cooking, and other responsibilities.
The National Cancer Institute. Coping: Changes in the family.
Even though you’re facing your leukemia alone, don’t forget that you do not have to fight this out alone.
