Leukemia is a blood cancer that affects both adults and children. It is characterized by the loss of blood supply to the bones, lungs, heart and brain, as well as inflammation of blood vessels in the area affected. Most people with leukemia will experience pain in the chest and in some cases may also suffer from weakness and fatigue.
Leukemia is basically cancer of the white cells. White blood cells help the immune system fight infection. The white cells also produce new blood in the bone marrow where they attach to plaques. In chronic leukemia, cancer cells in the bone marrow to increase rapidly.
In the bone marrow, the production of blood and red blood cells occurs in the same order. When the lymphatic system becomes unable to remove plaque from the bloodstream, leukemia can develop. With leukemia, the blood becomes abnormally contaminated and the immune system becomes hypersensitive. This leads to an overproduction of white blood cells that attack healthy white blood cells in the body.
Leukemias are caused by changes in the DNA sequence of DNA strands in the bone marrow. When this happens, the blood cannot produce enough platelets to replace the defective DNA strands. The bone marrow does not produce enough clotting factors or antibodies to counteract the effects of this change.
Without enough red and white blood cells, the immune system becomes less effective at fighting infection and the body begins to build up toxins. The lymph nodes, spleen, and bone marrow become infected and blood circulates throughout the body. Thus, blood can enter the lungs, heart, brain, bones, and other organs, causing further damage.
Treatment for leukemia begins with diagnosing and treating the disease, and in many cases, treatment includes bone marrow transplantation. In many patients, chemotherapy is used to kill cancer cells in the bone marrow.
This approach is often successful in treating chronic leukemia, but it can also be harmful at high doses
The most common type of leukemia is acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALCL), which is caused by uncontrolled replication of cancer cells, especially T cells. This type of leukemia can be treated with medications such as DDAVP and cyclophosphamide. When used alone, these drugs can destroy many of the cells that cause leukemia in the bone marrow, but they can also damage healthy white blood cells in the bone marrow and organs. When combined with chemotherapy, these drugs can be prescribed to kill more cancer cells. If chemotherapy drugs are given along with drugs that stimulate the immune system, the effect of the drugs may be stronger.
In children, when there is an imbalance of white blood cell counts in the blood, they may be treated with medications that help stimulate the white blood cell production in the bone marrow. Some of the drugs used for this purpose include heparin and umbilical cord blood stem cells, and monoclonal antibodies. In some cancers, monoclonal antibodies help to boost the production of white blood cell numbers. Treatment is usually ongoing and can last up to twelve months.
When leukemia is diagnosed in adults, the drugs used are typically in combination with bone marrow transplantation, to help fight off the infection. This treatment approach has the advantage of increasing the amount of blood that is available to the immune system. Antibodies are also being injected into the bone marrow, to kill cancerous cells.
If leukemia is diagnosed in adults with other medical problems, doctors often recommend chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation together. The goal of this type of treatment is to prevent the cancer from returning, by destroying the cancerous cells in the bone marrow and the blood. If there is still an abnormality in the red and white blood cells, the doctor may prescribe drugs to balance them out.
A blood test tube called the polymerase chain reaction is used to determine the extent of DNA strand mutations in the blood. If one strand in a molecule of DNA is out of balance, it is called an out-of-balance DNA. If several strands of DNA strands are out of balance, the strand with the lowest out-of-balance value is termed the dominant strand and it becomes the target.
After chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation, the patient's blood stream is checked to determine if the leukemia recurs and whether or not it has spread to another part of the body. If there is no further evidence of leukemia, the treatment plan can be continued. If it does spread, the doctors will continue treatment and increase the doses of chemotherapy and other medications.