Discovering leukemia while it is still in an early phase is
crucial in its treatment because when the disease advances it starts to
spread in the whole body and it's much harder to be treated.
Therefore
it's important to learn the symptoms of leukemia so that you can can
detect its signs and take the appropriate measures. Symptoms however may
vary from one person to another and they also depend on what type of
leukemia the patient has. Leukemia can be divided into two major types:
acute leukemia and chronic leukemia, each having its specific symptoms.
Leukemia
symptoms result from the fact that the blood cells of someone suffering
from leukemia are diseased and they can't fulfill their role anymore.
Patients
with acute leukemia have too little red blood cells in their bodies
which leads to a general feeling of weakness and to a pale color.
On
the other hand, a person with too many abnormal white blood cells can
develop fever, is very easily bruised, will suddenly start bleeding out
his/her nose or gums and sometimes they will feel pain in the joints.
Other
common symptoms of leukemia are pain in the abdomen, swollen lymph
nodes, weight loss, sweating, and if the disease spreads to the brain
headaches, disorientation, balance problems and confusion appears.
Acute
leukemia develops much faster that chronic leukemia, but it's easier to
be discovered because people come at the doctor because they feel sick.
Chronic leukemia develops much slower but it's harder to detect it
because very often it shows no specific symptoms and it's discovered
when it has already advanced a lot. Always feeling weakend and getting
infections often can be a sign so visit your doctor for an accurate
diagnosis.
If someone reports a few of these symptoms to the
doctor then some special tests must be performed to determine whether
the person has leukemia or not and if he/she has it then some other
tests need to be done to determine what kind of treatment gives the best
results.
The lymph and blood marrow must be examined and blood samples must
also be processed in order to establish an accurate diagnosis. Once the
leukemia diagnose is established chemotherapy usually begins. The
survival rate gets higher and higher each year.
Showing posts with label Chronic Leukemia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chronic Leukemia. Show all posts
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Monday, August 5, 2013
Chronic Leukemia - A Less Dangerous Cancer, But Harder To Treat
12:17:00 PM
Leukemia is a dangerous form of cancer, and it affects thousands
of people every year. It affects the white blood cells. The body loses
control of the quantity and quality of blood cells, and it becomes very
vulnerable because the white blood cells are supposed to protect our
organism against infections. There are two main types of leukemia -
acute leukemia and chronic leukemia. Acute leukemia is more dangerous
because it spreads much faster, but chronic leukemia can be tricky
because it has almost no symptoms.
The first organ that is
affected by chronic leukemia is the bone marrow. The bone marrow is a
tissue that can be found on some of the main bones in the body and that
has the role of producing blood cells (red blood cells and white blood
cells).
White blood cells are the guardians of the body. They can be found anywhere in the blood and they attack and neutralize any type of bacteria that enters the body and that can be harmful.
White blood cells are the guardians of the body. They can be found anywhere in the blood and they attack and neutralize any type of bacteria that enters the body and that can be harmful.
When a
patient has chronic leukemia, the white blood cells from his blood are
deffective and they are continuously created. A normal person should
have less then 10000 white blood cells white a person with leukemia can
have more than 100000, but although there are so many the protection
against infections is decreased because most of the cells are
malfunctioning.
A particularity of chronic leukemia is that patients who have it also have a lower number of red blood cells.
A particularity of chronic leukemia is that patients who have it also have a lower number of red blood cells.
The
causes of all types of leukemia are unknown, doctors cannot determine
why some people have this illness and other don't. Though, scientists
discovered some factors that increase the risks of becoming ill of
leukemia. Among these factors radiations play an important role, many
that were exposed to radiations were soon diagnosed with leukemia. Also,
a malfunction in the genes can cause the blood cells to transform, so
it can have a genetic cause. The causes and risk factors are still being
researched.
The bad thing about chronic leukemia is that it
usually shows no symptoms that can give he patient an idea about his
condition. It's often discovered during routine lab tests. Some of those
suffering from chronic leukemia reported having a general state of
weakness and fatigue. As the disease advances blood can start to come
out of the nose or of the gums for no reason, and because the organism
is weakened and its defense is lowered, leukemia patients can be vruised
very easy, and they are often infected with foreign microorganism.
Chronic
leukemia treatment depends on each patient. After the diagnose a series
of tests are made to determine which therapy the patient responds to.
Chemotherapy is used in most situations. The number of people that are
cured of chronic leukemia is increasing as time passes, but a there is a
notable number of victims too.
New drugs and cures keep being
researched by doctors and scientists and the survival rate is rising, so
maybe in the near future chronic leukemia will be musc easier to treat.
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