Leukemia symptoms & treatment

Leukemia is a type of blood cancer that begins in your bone marrow – the soft tissue in the center of your bones, where blood cells are produced. It causes your marrow to produce too many immature white blood cells and not enough healthy red blood cells, platelets and mature white blood cells (called leukocytes).

Leukemia can occur in adults or in children. In fact, it’s the most common cancer found in kids and teens.

Types of leukemia

There are several different types of leukemia. Acute types of leukemia progress quickly, while chronic types of leukemia progress more slowly. Types of leukemia are also divided by the kind of cells they affect. Lymphocytic types affect lymphocytes, a kind of white blood cell. Myelogenous types affect myeloid cells – immature cells that mature to be white blood cells, red blood cells or platelets.

Leukemia symptoms you experience can also vary by the type of leukemia. Some of the most common types of leukemia are:

• Acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL): The most common type of childhood cancer – also seen in adults
  
• Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML): More common in older adults and also affects children
  
• Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL): Often occurs during or after middle age and is one of the most common types in adults
  
• Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML): Usually affects adults during or after middle age
  
• Hairy cell leukemia (HCL): Rare form of leukemia that is more common in males than in females and very rare in younger people

Symptoms of leukemia

Leukemia symptoms vary depending on the type of leukemia, but may include:

• Red spots on skin from burst blood vessels (petechiae)
• Fatigue
• Weight loss
• Sweating and fever, including night sweats
• Being prone to bleeding or easily bruised

Leukemia causes & risk factors

We don't know what causes leukemia. There are some factors that increase your risk of having leukemia. They include:

• Previous chemo or radiation treatment for other cancers
• Genetic disorders like Down syndrome
• Other blood cancers
• Family history of leukemia
• Repeated exposure to benzene (found in cigarette smoke)
• Smoking
• Exposure to high levels of radiation

Diagnosis of leukemia

To diagnose leukemia, your doctor will draw some of your blood and conduct a complete blood count (CBC). If you have the disease, the test will show abnormally high numbers of white blood cells or leukemic cells, or abnormally low numbers of red blood cells or platelets.

Other tests your doctor may perform to confirm leukemia symptoms are:

• Bone marrow biopsy: Results can tell your doctor what kind of leukemia you have.
  
• Spinal tap: A sample of spinal fluid is taken from your spinal cord. Results can tell your doctor whether leukemia cells have spread.
  
• Imaging tests: CT, PET and MRI tests can locate damage to other organs caused by leukemia.

Treatment options for leukemia

If your blood test indicates cancer, your doctor will remove some of the marrow from your hip bone (or another large bone) to determine which type of leukemia you have. Depending on your diagnosis and leukemia symptoms you're experiencing, you might need a combination of treatments, including:

Chemotherapy: With chemotherapy, drugs target cancer cells, interfering with their ability to reproduce.

Radiation: High-energy X-rays to destroy leukemia cells or stop their growth.

Allogeneic bone marrow transplant/stem cell transplant: This procedure helps rebuild your bone marrow after chemotherapy. It may be recommended after an extremely high dose of chemo, which can kill off your healthy stem cells (immature blood cells) as well as the cancer cells. (Allogeneic means the stem cells are transplanted from another person.)

Surgery: Your doctor may remove your spleen if it's full of cancer and is causing pressure on other organs.