Who gets it?
Although we tend to hear more about children having leukaemia, far more adults are diagnosed.
About 6,800 people get leukaemia in the UK each year. About 2,700 of these are acute leukaemia. The most common form is found more often in caucasians (white people), and affects guys more frequently than girls.
What is it?
Leukaemia is a disease of the white blood cells and is often called cancer of the blood. When someone has leukaemia, large numbers of abnormal white blood cells called leukocytes are produced in the bone marrow. These abnormal cells crowd the bone marrow and flood into the bloodstream, but they cannot perform their proper role of protecting the body against disease.
As leukaemia grows, the cancer interferes with the body's production of other types of blood cells, including red blood cells and platelets.
Leukaemia is described as either acute, when it develops suddenly and moves quickly, or chronic, when it develops and progresses slowly.
The types of leukaemia most likely to occur in children and teens are:
acute lymphocytic leukaemia (ALL) and acute myelogenous leukaemia (AML).
What causes it? What are my risks?
We still don't know what causes leukaemia. Like other cancers, it is probably the result of many things. Because it occurs randomly there is currently no effective way to prevent most types of leukaemia.
These factors may increase your risk:
- smoking
- exposure to radiation
- certain genetic conditions
What are the symptoms?
The main symptoms are:
- increased number of fevers or infection
- anaemia - when the bone marrow's production of oxygen-carrying red blood cells is affected, making the skin appear pale
- experiencing nosebleeds often
- bruising and bleeding very easily
Other symptoms may include:
- pain in the bones or joints
- swollen lymph nodes (sometimes called swollen glands) in the neck, groin, or elsewhere
- an abnormally tired feeling
- poor appetite
- bleeding from minor cuts for a long time (as the bone marrow is not able to produce platelets, which help the blood clot)
Treatment
Many forms of leukaemia can be cured, but recovery depends on the specific features of the patient's disease.
The main treatments are:
Chemotherapy
Almost all leukaemia patients are treated with chemotherapy. Drugs are given through a catheter (a narrow tube inserted into a blood vessel), sometimes in the upper chest.
Radiotherapy
High-energy rays are used to shrink tumours and keep cancer cells from growing. This may be used along with chemotherapy for high-risk patients.
Bone marrow transplant
This is a complicated procedure, which involves fresh bone marrow (usually from family members), being introduced into the bloodstream through an intravenous drip. The marrow travels through the bloodstream to the bones, where it begins to make normal blood cells. It's done as well as or instead of chemotherapy.
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