Leukemia is something that we hear about it a lot. I believe that people do not understand exactly what leukemia is and how dangerous it can be. I choose this topic to try to help all of you understand. Leukemia is a type of cancer. White blood cancer. Leukemia is from Greek word which means white blood or leukocytes. Leukemia found at year 1845. So its very long time, compare to AIDS only in 1950. There are 2 types of leukemia. The acute leukemia and chronic leukemia. For your information, this 2 types of leukemia were divided based on how fast they spread.
Acute leukemia is faster than chronic leukemia. Every each of this leukemias are divided into 2 subtypes. For chronic leukemia, chronic lymphocytic leukemia and chronic myeloid leukemia. For acute leukemia, acute lymphocytic leukemia and acute myeloid leukemia. As we all know, white blood cells is very usefull for us because help us to fight again infection. for normal body we have around 3000-10000 white blood cells for every one mililiter. But in leukemia, your white blood cells is more than 100000 or even a million for every one mililiter.
This all white blood cells not function properly or malfunction. Acute leukemia is a very dangerous types of leukemia. Because you will die only in several month only if you did not get any treatment. This is because all the white blood cells are immature and produce rapidly. The acute leukemia usually occur in child. For the chronic leukemia, you will die after several years if you did not get any treatment. This happen because white blood cells are more mature and gradual produce. Chronic leukemia usually infected for adult or ageing.
But for your information, chronic leukemia can become acute leukemia in terminal stage. There are 3 stages for chronic leukemia, Chronic phase Accelerated myeloproliferative phase Terminal stage. There are many symtom of leukemia. Such as, Weakness or chronic fatigue Fever, flu uncontrolled Unexplained weight loss Frequent bacterial or viral infections Viscous blood (Sticky blood, slow down the flow of blood flow) Headache Non-specific bone pain Easy bruising Bleeding from gums or nose 10. Blood in urine 11. Swollen & tender lymph nodes 12. Abdominal fulins 13. Night sweats 14.
Petechiae (tiny red spot under the skin) 15. Pniapism 16. Sores in the eyes or the slum 17. Anemia 18. Leucopenia 19. Leucocytosis 20. Thrombocytopenia Cause For your information, the cause of leukemia is unknown. That why its very hard to cure, because we did not know exactly the cause of this disease. But many scientist, there theory actually, said that the cause is, natural and artificial ionizing radiation, viruses such as Human T Lymphotropic virus some chemicals notably benzene akylating chemotherapy agent some said smoking increase the potential to get acute myeloid leukemia.
Many research said that mutations is main cause of leukiemia. This mutation occur spontaneously or as a result of exposure to radiation or carcinogenic. Leukemia can be diagnose by a number of ways. Bone marrow biopsy Spinal tap (lumbar puncture) CT Scans ( computed tomography scans) MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) CBC Peripheral scans The treatment for leukemia is not really a cure but only slow down the process of leukemia cells. The goal for the treatment is to get the cancer into remission (reduce the effects) To be considered cure you must be a cancer free for at least 5 years.
The most common treatment is chemotherapy but also have its own effects. Because chemotherapy using at least 30 drugs combine for one medicine. It usually were given orally. The other treatment is bone marrow tranplans. But using new finding or research or techonology of biotech. we did not transplant the bone marrow but taking stem cells of others normal person and and produce it and eject it into patients. But there are no guaratee at all. Some metabolism patients reject this stem cells. The other treatment is radiation or biological therapy.
The high energy beams also be using to kill the cancerous cells. In conclusion, i have learned about leukemia it is a very painful disease. Leukemia is a very dominant disease and very hard to treat. The key maybe in the cause and we still research about the exact cause of leukemia. The people with leukemia suffer very much throughout the disease and treatment of the disease, even if they eventually cured. leukemia can be fatal but with early diagnosis, proper treatment and a LOT OF LUCK we can survive. So i hope someday, we will find a cure for leukemia and all other cancer. THANK YOU. Reza@JJ.