Leukemia
By: Katherine Diaz
What is Leukemia
Leukemia is a type of blood cancer that starts in the bone marrow, blood cells. It can affect both children and adults.
Symptoms
- Fever, chills
- Fatigue, weakness
- Loss of appetite
- Night sweats
- Abdominal pain
- Headaches
- Shortness of breath
Prevention
There aren't many known ways to prevent Leukemia. Although, it is known that some types of Leukemia can be prevented by:
- Avoiding high doses of radiation
- Exposure to the chemical benzene
- Smoking and types of tobacco
- Specific types of chemotherapy used to treat other types of cancer
- Also eating healthy may help too
Causes
No known causes. It's hereditary.
Treatment
The treatment depends on the kind of leukemia you have and your age and overall health. Treatments plans for acute lmyphoblastic leukemia, which include three steps: induction, consolidation, and maintenance.
Induction therapy kills leukemia cells in the blood and bone marrow.
Consolidation therapy will kill any leukemia cells that are there but do not show up on tests.
Maintenance therapy will prevent any new leukemia cells from growing.
Anyone who has leukemia has to be healthy and maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Diagnosis
Sometimes when the blood tests suggest leukemia, the doctors can look for any sort of symptoms or signs for leukemia in the bone marrow. They can determine that by doing a biopsy where a small amount of your bone marrow is removed from the bone. Then a pathologist will examine that under a microscope to for any weird cells.
Frequency in population
It is said that about 1.4% of people, men and women, will be diagnosed with Leukemia at some point in their lives.
In 2011, there was an estimate of about 302,800 people dealing with Leukemia in the United States.
Leukemia occurs more in men than in women and it happens more to the white people than other races.
Laura's Cancer Blog - Living with Leukaemia