Leukemia Treatment

Acute Leukemia:

Acute Leukemia progresses quickly because they affect stem cells, called blasts, which divide rapidly—both normal blood cells and cancerous ones. The problem is that the abnormal cells invade the blood quickly because they do not stop dividing when they should. Since they are fast-growing, the acute leukemias spread to other organs such as the central nervous system. Many people with acute forms of leukemia experience symptoms of easy bleeding, bruising, fatigue, unintended weight loss, and frequent infections.

There are two types of Acute Leukemia:

• Acute Lymphocytic (also called Lymphoblastic) Leukemia (ALL): ALL starts in stem cells called lymphoblasts. These cells can spread quickly through bone marrow. They crowd out other developing blood cells, including red blood cells, white blood cells (important for fighting infection), and platelets (important for blood clotting). Mature lymphocytes are responsible for making antibodies. ALL is one of the most common types. Both adults and children can get it. It is the most common leukemia in children. Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia grows quickly and requires immediate treatment. It can spread from the bone marrow to the brain.

• Acute Myelogenous (also called Myeloid) Leukemia (AML): AML starts in stem cells called leukemic blasts. AML can spread quickly through bone marrow and decrease the production of healthy blood cells in all three types: white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. The loss of red blood cells will cause anemia, the loss of white blood cells leads to frequent and severe infections and the loss of platelets leads to easy bleeding. AML is a type of cancer that grows quickly and needs immediate treatment. AML is hard to treat, but can be cured in some cases. This type is common in adults. 

About 75% of all childhood leukemias are ALL, with the rest being AML.

Chronic Leukemia:

In chronic leukemia, the abnormal cells are partly mature but appear to be normal. When these cells develop into leukemia cells, they cannot fight illness, and they survive longer than normal white blood cells, allowing them to build up in the blood.

These types of cancer progress slower than acute leukemias. They do not show any symptoms and people can live for many years after developing the disease. However, chronic leukemia does not respond to treatment and this makes it more difficult to cure.

There are two types of Chronic Leukemia:

• Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL): CLL does not show any symptoms until years after cancer starts. CLL develops from partly mature white blood cells called lymphocytes. It begins in the bone marrow and then flows into the blood. There are two types of CLL, one that grows slowly, and another that develops more quickly and is more serious. The stem cell that becomes CLL will be called a leukemic cell. Slow-growing CLL does not crowd out other developing blood cells and is less severe than the fast-growing form, and it may not need treatment for years. CLL is more common in adults.

• Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML) starts in myeloid cells but the abnormal cells grow slowly. The stem cell that develops into CML is a leukemic cell. Since CML is slow-growing leukemia, it does not crowd out other developing blood cells in the bone marrow. But it can also turn into an acute, fast-growing leukemia. This type of leukemia mainly affects adults. CML patients may have few or no symptoms for months or years before entering a phase in which the leukemia cells grow rapidly. The exposure to high doses of radiation can be one of the causes of CML.

Chronic leukemia is rare in children.