What is leukemia?

Leukemia is blood cancer that starts building up in connective tissue before spreading around the body. This connective tissue (bone marrow) forms stem cells that branch to form blood cells, e.g. red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets. Leukemia causes cells to form and divide uncontrollably. 
People with this abnormality develop an anomalous type of white blood cell called the leukemia cell. This cell keeps on accumulating and making it hard for normal cells to do their work in the body, i.e. they make it hard for other cells to function. 

Types of leukemia:

Leukemia is divided into four types:

- Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) most commonly diagnosed in children, ALL, causes death and damage to cells. It is caused when early lymphoid precursors grow to replace the normal and essential hematopoietic stem cells (cells responsible for the renewal of blood). 
Acute, Wikipedia states, refers to the relatively short time course of the disease, i.e. being fatal in as little as a few weeks. 
- Acute myelogenous leukemia, a.k.a acute myeloid leukemia (AML), most commonly diagnosed in adults, is when the bone marrow develops abnormal blast cells that do not perform their function (fighting infection). AML, however, could also cause abnormality in red blood and platelets as well. A common cause is down syndrome. 
- Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), always diagnosed in adults, starts with the change of a cell called the lymphocyte. People with CLL experience accumulation of incompetent/abnormal lymphocytes that cannot fight infection. CLL gets worse slowly, unlike the two types of leukemia listed above. 
- Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), mainly diagnosed in adults, is rarely spread in societies, effecting approximately 4,800 people per year. CML is caused when blood stem cells develop into an abnormal type of white blood cell called the granulocytes. These cells crowd normal mature cells (e.g. red blood cells, platelets) and make it hard for them to function. 

Symptoms:

1) Tiring more easily, fever and night sweat
2) Uneven breathing
3) Weight loss due to loss of appetite 
4) Infection due to inability of white blood cells to fight pathogens
5) Easy bleeding and bruising due to dysfunction of platelets 
6) Blurred vision 

How to diagnose leukemia?

Doctors diagnose leukemia by a number of blood tests -e.g. cytogenic analysis, complete blood count- to indicate the quantity of blood cells (red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets) present in the body. 
Some people are diagnosed with the sickness after looking at a number of leukemia symptoms. Often, the most common symptoms are easy bleeding and infections. People with leukemia can sometimes bleed and lose a lot of blood for no reason.

How to treat leukemia?

Leukemia is not easily treated. Like any cancer, patients need to undergo chemotherapy. They lose all their hair and are at risk of death-threatening side-effects. Its even hard knowing that people with leukemia have a weak immunity and anything can affect them negatively. 
Sometimes, patients get a number of transplants, e.g. bone marrow, granulocytes, or even body organs after they weaken from the chemicals put into their bodies during surgeries.

Written by:
Ahood D

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