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Acute lymphoblastic leukemia: Causes and treatments

 Content overview

Symptoms

Causes and risk factors

Treatment

Outcomes and prevention


Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is a malignant cancer of the blood. It is the most common cancer in childhood .It is also known as ALL, acute lymphocytic leukemia or B-Cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. ALL account for 80 percent of childhood leukemias. It is the only leukemia that is more common in children under 5 than in adults. It often affects children aged 2 to 3 years.In the United States (USA), there are about 6,500 new ALL cases a year, or 1.7 for every 100,000 people.The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2017, it will see 5,970 new ALL diagnoses and 1,440 deaths from ALL.

Symptoms

Acute lymphocytic leukemia is the most common cancer in childhood.

The symptoms of EVERYTHING usually start slowly, and then the weight escalates, because the number of explosive cells in the blood increases.

In people with ALL, the blood and bone marrow have a large number of early white blood cells, or lymphocytes, which become leukemic cells.



Signs and symptoms may include:


excessive sweating

fatigue

often unexplained bleeding, such as bloody carrier numbers or bleeding

high temperature

painful joints and / or bones

panting

several infections over a short period

swollen glands (lymph nodes)

swollen liver

swollen spleen

skin bruises easily

the skin is softer than it should be

unexplained weight loss

Affected cells can spread to the central nervous system (CNS), affecting the brain and spinal cord. If this happens, the patient may have neurological symptoms, such as dizziness, vomiting, blurred vision, fit (epileptics) and headache.



Causes and risk factors

The causes of ALL are generally unknown, but there are some common risk factors.

Experts say that the main causes of ALL are exposure to high levels of radiation or benzene. It is also associated with some health conditions.

Radiation can come from air traffic. Individuals who have spent over 5,000 hours on airplanes have a higher risk of developing EVERYTHING, because flying increases exposure to solar radiation.

Benzene is a chemical found in crude oil, petroleum and many solvents and plastics. It can also be found in cigarette smoke, which is one of the factors that connect EVERYTHING and smoking.

About 1 in every 20 cases is thought to be caused by genetic disorders, such as Down syndrome.



How does leukemia progress?

Everything occurs when there are too many immature explosive cells in the blood.

Leukemia can be acute or chronic.Chronic leukemia develops slowly, and allows the dosing of mature, useful cells, but acute leukemia progresses quickly.Acute leukemia suffocates good cells faster than chronic leukemia. There is a rapid accumulation of immature, useless cells in the marrow and blood.

These are called B-lymphocytes and T-lymphocytes, or B-cells and T-cells.A 1999 study examined whether early exposure to bacteria could protect children from developing ALL.

A significantly lower percentage of children who go to play groups early develop ALL compared to those who did not, suggesting that early exposure to various microbes may provide some protection



.

Treatment

Treatment options will depend on the type of ALL, as well as the age and general level of health of the patient


Treatment includes two phases:

The first phase aims to destroy leukemia cells in the blood or bone marrow. This is called induction of remission.

The second phase takes place after confirmation of remission. The treatment continues to work against the recurrence or recurrence of ALL.

Remission is the name for the absence of leukemia cells in the blood or bone marrow.

Chemotherapy is used at each stage. Chemotherapy is given intravenously through a central line or central venous catheter.



Chemotherapy is the mainstay of treatment for everyone it is used to kill cancer cells. It is often given intravenously or orally.

However, the chemicals may not reach the brain or human testicles. Because leukemia can affect both of these areas, so they can be injected directly into the spine to get them. This is known as intrathecal injection.

Radiotherapy is used in cases where ALL has spread to the brain or to the CNS. In this case, targeted treatment is required.

Bone marrow or stem cell transplantation can be used as intensive chemotherapy or radiotherapy. High-dose chemotherapy and radiotherapy kill bone marrow cells, and new cells need to be generated.

Transplantation usually comes from a donor, but sometimes the patient's own cells can be used. It depends on the type of leukemia.

There is a strong risk of bleeding through any of the treatment options. This is due to the reduced platelet count in patients with leukemia.

Outcomes and prevention

Leukemia is curable, especially in younger patients, and after treatment, one can live a full life. However, there are long-term reasons for ALL patients who are in remission.

The immune system of those who are not completely cured is very low in white blood cells. The patient becomes susceptible to infections, and some are life-threatening.

Previous ALL patients can continue to live a full and happy life after recovery. The patient will have to continue with regular diagnostic tests for several years after active treatment in order to rule out recurrent cancer.



The diagnosis will be reduced regularly and then stopped when sufficient progress has been made.The medical requirement to continue testing depends on the type of ALL and the patient's condition.

Forty estimates of adults aged 25 to 64 will survive SVO for at least 5 years after diagnosis.The five-year survival rate for children under the age of 19 is 85 percent when the right treatment is obtained.

New methods of diagnosis and therapy mean that there is an optimistic outlook for increasing adult survival rates for everyone.


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