Leukemia

Learn more about leukemia and its symptoms.

For many people, the first sign of leukemia shows up in a routine blood test.

Many people who have leukemia don’t know it until their doctor notices lower counts of normal blood cells in their blood test.

Or they may not recognize the signs, because many leukemia symptoms are similar to symptoms of other conditions. These may include:

• Feeling tired or weak
• Fever or chills
• Unexpected weight loss
• Night sweats
• Bone pain
• Nosebleeds
• Easy bruising
• Frequent infections

Most leukemias affect white blood cells. White blood cells help your immune system fight off infection and disease.

About ALL: People have a higher risk of getting it if they already have one of several other conditions.

Acute lymphocytic leukemia, or ALL, is also called acute lymphoblastic leukemia. In ALL, there are too many lymphocytes in your bone marrow. Lymphocytes are the early version of what eventually becomes a white blood cell.

A risk factor is something that increases the chance that you might get a disease. 

You may be at greater risk if you have these conditions.

Risk factors for ALL include:

• Exposure to high levels of radiation
• Exposure to certain chemicals, such as benzene and certain chemotherapy drugs
• Certain viral infections, such as:
  • T-cell lymphoma/leukemia virus-1 (HTLV-1) in Japan and the Caribbean
  • Epstein-Barr virus in Africa
• Inherited syndromes, such as:
  • Down syndrome
  • Klinefelter syndrome
  • Fanconi anemia
  • Bloom syndrome
  • Ataxia-telangiectasia
  • Neurofibromatosis
• Race: more common in Caucasians than in African-Americans
• Gender: more common in men than in women

ALL is not a single disease. It’s actually a group of related diseases. Patients with different types of ALL will have different treatments and responses to those treatments.

Treatment for ALL depends on your specific condition.

The main treatment options for ALL are:

• Chemotherapy
• Targeted therapy: daily medication, typically given as a pill
• Stem cell transplant

Other possible forms of treatment include surgery, radiation therapy, or monoclonal (human-made) antibodies.

Treatment for ALL typically lasts for two years. It can be an intense treatment, so it’s good to get your ALL care at a center with recognized experience in treating the disease.

About AML: It’s the most common leukemia in adults.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is also known as acute myelogenous leukemia. In AML, early versions of blood cells become abnormal and then invade the body. Without treatment, most patients with AML would live only a few months.

Consider these risk factors.

A risk factor is something that increases the chance that you might get a disease. Risk factors for AML include:

• Smoking
• Exposure to certain chemicals, such as benzene
• Certain chemotherapy drugs, such as alkylating agents and topoisomerase II inhibitors
• Radiation exposure, such as being a survivor of a nuclear reactor accident
• Certain blood disorders, such as polycythemia vera, essential thrombocythemia, and idiopathic myelofibrosis
• Genetic syndromes such as:
  • Fanconi anemia
  • Bloom syndrome
  • Ataxia-telangiectasia
  • Diamond-Blackfan anemia
  • Shwachman-Diamond syndrome
  • Li-Fraumeni syndrome
  • Neurofibramatosis type 1
  • Severe congenitalneutropenia
  • Down syndrome
  • Trisomy 8
• Family history of AML
• Older age
• Male gender

Typically there are two phases of AML treatment.

The first phase kills the leukemia cells and puts the cancer into remission.

The second phase kills any remaining leukemia cells that aren’t active but may be able to grow again.

About CLL: This slow-progressing disease also is a common adult leukemia.

In chronic lymphocytic leukemia, or CLL, the bone marrow makes too many abnormal lymphocytes. Lymphocytes are the early version of what eventually becomes a white blood cell. CLL is usually found in middle age or later and gets worse slowly. It’s rarely diagnosed in children.

People with CLL have a shortage of normal white blood cells, so their immune system doesn’t work as well as it should. They have a higher risk of infection.

There are five categories of CLL treatment.

• Observation: In the early stage of the disease, when it’s usually progressing slowly, the patient’s condition is monitored until the symptoms begin to change.
• Radiation: Radiation treatment can kill cancer cells or stop them from growing.
• Chemotherapy: Chemotherapy drugs can kill cancer cells or stop them from growing.
• Surgery: Some CLL patients may have their spleen removed.
• Targeted therapy: Targeted therapy uses drugs that identify cancer cells and attack them. There are many types of targeted therapy for CLL.

About CML: This slow-growing leukemia can change into a fast-growing and acute leukemia.

Chronic myeloid leukemia, or CML, is also known as chronic myelogenous leukemia. CML starts in blood-forming cells in the bone marrow.

People with CML don’t make enough red blood cells, white blood cells that function properly, or platelets. This happens because the leukemia cells replace the regular blood-making cells in the bone marrow.

Treatment options depend on your specific case.

You and your doctor will determine your treatment for CML. Targeted therapy drugs are the main treatment for CML, but other treatments may be necessary. These include:

• Interferon
• Chemotherapy
• Radiation therapy
• Surgery
• Stem cell transplant