Top 15 Common Questions About Leukemia - Page 2 of 15

What is leukemia & Is leukemia cancer?

It is a disease that belongs to the group of myeloproliferative diseases in the blood, and it is a type of cancer in the blood. This means that leukemia features an accelerated growth of immature blood cells in the bone marrow. These new cells are not immature and not functional, and may include immature red blood cells, monocytes, neutrophils, basophils, or eosinophils. Since they are an important source of defense in our bodies, patients with leukemia are especially susceptible to many different types of infections. Certain blood cells are responsible for blood clotting, and patients will also suffer from easy bleeding, slow wound healing, and anemia.

When to worry about a rash in adults?

Skin rash is one of the most common manifestations of many different diseases, and the majority of them are benign. However, if you continuously find new rashes and strange symptoms, your doctor may recommend a complete blood count.

Doctors start worrying about a rash when it is associated with very low levels of red blood cells, basophils, neutrophils of monocytes. In other cases, they can be abnormally high instead of low but based on immature forms of each cell line. In this case, it is possible that your doctor decides to run some additional tests to know what happens and give you a diagnosis.

If you have a rash as an adult, is there any way to know whether or not to worry? What causes skin rash in adults? What signs and symptoms should alert you to ask your doctor right away and find out the cause of your rash? We covered all of these topics in our article about when to worry about a rash in adults?.

Why do I bruise so easily & When to worry about bruises in adults?

Easy bruising is often a problem with blood clotting, which may be caused by several diseases, including mild liver function alterations, severe hepatitis, inherited blood clotting problems, and leukemia. If you start bruising easily, it is very likely your doctor will order a few tests to find out why. Certain blood cell count abnormalities may alarm doctors and they will start investigating your case. Around 50% of patients with leukemia have hemorrhagic manifestations such as bruising easily or slow wound healing. So, if you have any of these and other signs and symptoms of leukemia, talk to your doctor as soon as possible.

What causes leukemia?

The root cause of leukemia is a genetic alteration of the progenitor cells in the bone marrow that produces blood cell lines. These progenitor cells are divided into myeloid and lymphoid types, giving rise to red blood cells, granulocytes, lymphocytes, and natural killer cells. When there’s a genetic lesion in these cells, they become incapable of differentiating immature cells into mature cells and release them to the bloodstream ahead of time to keep on replicating without any control. There’s also an absence of a cell command called apoptosis or programmed cellular death, which detects genetic alterations in a given cell and triggers self-destruction to protect the integrity of the cell lines.

Is leukemia curable?

There are certain types of leukemia with a very good prognosis. For example, many children diagnosed with acute leukemia are cured of their disease. However, in adults the disease has a higher risk and treatment with chemotherapy tends to be very aggressive. Myeloblastic leukemia may need chemotherapy, transfusions, and antibiotics. Promyelocytic leukemia has a higher recuperation rate, but it also has a higher recurrence of the disease 3 years after treatment.

What is considered a high white blood cell count?

The normal value of white blood count is around 5,000 and 10,000 cells per mL. In children and adults, we should suspect something is severely wrong when this number goes beyond 20,000 cells per mL. In these cases, doctors usually require a confirmatory test and other blood tests including coagulation tests and various chemical and microscopic analysis, depending on your symptoms. In other cases, you may have abnormally low red blood cell count, in which case leukemia will not be automatically ruled out.

What happens if white blood cells are high?

When you have a high white blood cell count, it is either a sign of infection and may be a sign that something is wrong in your bone marrow, as in leukemia. In leukemia, what happens is that you will have a very little percentage of mature white blood cells, and the constant influx of immature cells take away red blood cells, platelets, granulocytes, and lymphocytes as well, reducing the effectivity of the bone marrow to create new mature cells and leading to anemia, hemorrhagic manifestations, and immune problems. This overgrowth may also affect the liver, the spleen, and the lymph nodes.

How to lower white blood cell count?

Lymphoblastic leukemia requires chemotherapy medications that reduce the number of immature blood cells, also known as blasts. An example of these medications is cyclophosphamide which may be combined with high doses of methotrexate and dexamethasone, a type of steroid medication that reduces the number of white blood cells, as well. In myeloblastic leukemia.

What happens when you have a low white blood cell count?

When you have extremely low white blood cell counts in leukemia, there’s also a chance that the circulating cells are immature. Thus, this predisposes the patient to all types of infection. Bacterial infections are prevented by a cellular line that includes neutrophils, eosinophils, and monocytes while lymphocytes help us combat viruses. If any of these cell lines is altered, we can suffer from an infection depending on which one, and even apparently harmless infections may become a life-threatening condition that requires hospitalization.

How is leukemia diagnosed?

First off, the diagnosis of leukemia requires a high suspicion, which is made by considering the signs and symptoms of the disease. They are often collected in the medical interview and physical exam. In your physical exam, your doctor may detect changes in your liver or spleen as well as abdominal masses or neurologic compromise. However, an important part of the diagnosis is the results of several blood tests that include complete blood count, microscopic analysis of your blood, lactic dehydrogenase, and alkaline phosphatase.

How to test for leukemia?

The definite diagnosis of leukemia is through a bone marrow biopsy, which is typically done after suspecting the disease, interviewing the patient, performing a physical exam, and receiving alarming blood tests. These samples are usually taken in the sternum bone, which is located in the middle of the chest, and it is typically performed by a specialist in hematology or oncology. The sample is analyzed and leukemia will be diagnosed depending on the microscopic characteristics of the bone marrow cells.

Is leukemia genetic (Is leukemia hereditary)?

Certain forms of myeloid chronic leukemia are inherited through chromosomic alterations that run through families. In other types of leukemia, such as myeloid leukemia, the origin is unknown, and it is often associated with environmental factors, radiation exposure, contact with chemical agents, and certain medications. Since hereditary leukemia is a possibility, your doctor may need to ask you about your family history with cancer, especially blood cancer.

What is the most common cause of low platelet count?

Among common causes of low platelet count, we can have a reduction in their production by the bone marrow, but also viral infections that reduce this number, including the Epstein Barr virus, rubella, and many others. Platelets may also be destroyed in the bloodstream by autoimmune conditions such as systemic lupus erythematosus, HIV infections, medication-induced low platelet counts, and as an immediate result of blood transfusion. In cases of malignant hypertension and Hellp syndrome, the low platelet count is also a possibility. They may even become sequestered and eliminated by the liver or the spleen. Thus, there are many different causes we should rule out if you have a low platelet count, and many.

What are the symptoms of leukemia?

The symptoms of leukemia may vary widely from one patient to another, but they are not usually apparent during the first 3 months. There are early symptoms that may help us detect the possibility of leukemia. They are, for example, a sudden loss of appetite, mental fatigue, weight loss that is not associated with nutritional or physical activity changes, and fever that is not explained by a given cause. These patients may also have recurrent infections and hemorrhagic manifestations in the skin. The most common symptom is hemorrhagic problems, such as nosebleeds, heavy menstrual periods, gum bleeding, petechiae, purpura, and ecchymosis in the skin, and bleeding in another skin mucosa, especially the upper and lower gastrointestinal system.

Does cancer show up in routine blood work?

Cancer does not show up in routine blood work, and that includes the complete blood count. However, your doctor may notice an abnormally high or abnormally low white blood cell count or red blood cell count, which is very important to make the diagnosis.

We can have a high or low count in cases of anemia, during transient infections, and other health problems. But the numbers obtained in leukemia are alarmingly low or high and often require confirmation tests. The type of white blood cells usually involved are eosinophils, basophils, and neutrophils, but routine blood work will not describe the characteristics of the cells, which is important for diagnosis and will be ordered in additional blood tests.