Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Essay

Leukemia is a malignant disease or cancer of the bone marrow and blood. It is characterized by the uncontrolled accumulation of blood cells (American Cancer Society, 216). Leukemia is divided into four categories: myelogenous or lymphocytic, each of which can be acute or chronic (Medicine Net, 2015). The true cause is unknown but studies have shown things like exposure to high-energy radiation and harmful lifestyle choices such as drinking and smoking increase your

Scenario: John is a 4 year-old boy who was admitted for chemotherapy following diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).  He had a white blood cell count of 250,000.  Clinical presentation included loss of appetite, easily bruised, gum bleeding, and fatigue.  Physical examination revealed marked splenomegaly, pale skin color, temperature of 102°F, and upper abdomen tenderness along with nonspecific arthralgia.

According to the American Cancer Society (2013) stated, “Leukemia is a cancer that starts in early blood-forming cells” (American Cancer Society, 2013). “Most often, leukemia is a cancer of the white blood cells, but some leukemias start in other blood cell types” (American Cancer Society, 2013). “Any of the cells from the bone marrow can turn into a leukemia cell” (American Cancer Society, 2013). According to the American Cancer Society (2013) stated, “Once this change takes place, the leukemia cells don’t go through the normal process of maturing” (American Cancer Society, 2013). There are changes that leukemia cells can quickly reproduce themselves and not die when they are suppose too (American Cancer Society, 2013). “They survive and build up in the bone marrow, crowding out normal cells” (American Cancer Society, 2013). “In most cases, the leukemia cells spill into the bloodstream fairly quickly” (American Cancer Society, 2013). “Almost all childhood leukemia is acute leukemias” (American Cancer Society, 2013).

Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, is the disease that affects children the most and because of the abnormal cells that are immature white blood cells which cannot help the body fight infections cause children with the disease to often get infections and have fevers (National Cancer Institute, 2002, p. 1). The symptoms that the patient with ALL may have depend on the number of abnormal cells of the patient where exactly the cells collect. Children patients with ALL have low amounts of healthy red blood cells and platelets, which cause less oxygen to be carried through the body because of the lack of red blood cells. Patients at times may look pale, feel weak, and tired causing bleeding and bruising very easily because of their lack of enough platelets. This condition is called anemia. Anemia is very much common in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Fever, fatigue, bone or joint pain, tiny red spots under the skin called petechiae are a couple of symptoms that the disease ALL has. Headaches with, or without vomiting also may occur if patient happens to have abnormal cells collecting in the brain or spinal cord (National Cancer Institute, 2002 para. 2).

DK is a 51-year old male patient presenting with Acute Myeloid Leukemia AML. Two weeks ago while vacationing in Ocean City with his family, DK visited the local hospital with the symptoms of swollen leg, difficulty walking, pain, and fever. Bloodwork was performed at the local clinic and revealed anemia and low cell counts indicating possible leukemia. Patient returned to Baltimore and was admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital 1 week ago. His current symptoms are swelling of lower legs, fever, low blood Oxygen level, anemia.

Leukemia is a type of cancer that sadly causes around 25,000 deaths in the U.S. each year. The area that it affects is the blood and the bone marrow and like most or all of the types of cancer in the world if not taken control of early it will most likely kill you.

Thesis/argument statement OR main idea statement: Cancer affects children and their families in many ways.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is reported to be 75% of childhood leukemia. It is mostly occurs before age of 5 and to mostly boys. However this disease can occur to anyone throughout any point in their life. For adults it is most likely to occur to adults over the age of 50 years old. Throughout my research I discovered that children have a better odds of beating the cancer than adults would. Caucasian and Hispanic children are known to having a higher risk of being diagnosed with this disease. Each year, around 3,500 American children and adults are diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

They are often vague by the influenza or other common diseases. They are including fever, shortness of breath, excessive bleeding, Petechiae, weakness, tiredness, loss of appetite, and loss of weight. If not treated, overtime, AML can be more distinctive with signs of enlargement of the spleen, swelling of the gums because of infiltration of leukemic cells into the gum tissue, and. Tumor or mass outside the bone marrow is rarely seen in AML due to its rapid, abrupt onset that the disease are often detected through routine blood check.

Leukemia most common treatments are: Chemotherapy, Radiation therapy, and Bone marrow transplantation, and then there is also Biological therapy. In chemotherapy, patients take one or more anticancer drugs by mouth or, intravenously through IV therapy. In some cases, doctors need to inject the drugs directly into the fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord. Chemo can cause side effects, like losing your hair, nausea, fatigue, or easy bruising, depending on the drug. The side effects usually go away progressively between treatments or after treatments stop.

Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) is slow-progressing or “chronic”, cancer of the blood and bone marrow. CLL is the second most common leukemia in adults and one of the four primary types of leukemia. Certain risk factors have been identified including age, race, sex, family history of blood and bone marrow cancers and chemical exposure. Most people diagnosed with CLL are white males over the age of 60. Occurrence increases with age and a marked increase after 60. Herbicides, insecticides and Agent Orange used in the Vietnam War have shown to increase the risk of developing CLL. There are approximately 15,000 new cases diagnosed each year.

Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia is a scary disease. The term “acute” means the disease can quickly spread and progress quickly and can prove fatal in months if left untreated. “Lymphocytic” simply means that it develops from immature forms of lymphocytes. Also known as Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, or ALL for short, it is a type of cancer that starts from the early form of white blood cells called lymphocytes in the bone marrow. ALL is the most common form of cancer in children, though adults can get it as well. For children, treatment results in a good chance of a cure. Adults have a significantly smaller chance of a cure with ALL. ALL generally invades the blood very quickly and has the potential to spread to other body parts such as the spleen,

Leukemia is something that we hear about a lot. I believe that people do not understand exactly what leukemia is and how dangerous it can be, I chose this topic to try to help them understand. In this paper I will explain what leukemia is and what treatments you can choose from to treat the cancer.

There are two main and four specific types of leukemia. The two main types are acute leukemia, which is fast growing, and chronic leukemia, which is slow growing. The four specific types of leukemia are chronic lymphocytic (CLL), acute lymphocytic (ALL), chronic myelogenous (CML), and acute myelogenous (AML) that were discovered in 1913. About three quarters of children diagnosed with leukemia have acute lymphocytic which peaks as early as two to four years old. This cancer kills more children that are two or fifteen than anything else. To determine whether the cancer will be chronic or acute is to look at the cell lineage. The blood cell that becomes cancerous explains what type of leukemia it is. Depending on if the white cells, the red blood cells, or the platelets can determine exactly which leukemia it is. “Adults can get either type; children with leukemia most often have an acute type” (Leukemia: MedlinePlus). For a child to get a chronic leukemia is very rare. Now it is known that the cancer starts in the bone marrow, which is where blood cells are formed. Leukemia causes the body to create too many abnormal cells and these abnormal white cells cannot fight infection and also lessen the amount of red cells and platelets. Some of the risk factors of this cancer are large doses of ionizing radiation, being exposed to benzene for a long period of time, rare viruses, genetic disorders, and

There are two types of leukemia in children; acute and chronic. Acute is fast growing leukemia. Within acute leukemia are three categories: acute lymphocytic (lymphoblastic) leukemia (ALL), acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), and hybrid or mixed lineage leukemia. Acute lymphocytic (lymphoblastic) leukemia (ALL) is the most common type of childhood leukemia and develop from early forms of lymphocytes, also known as white blood cells. Specifically, three out of four childhood leukemias are ALL (About Childhood Leukemia). Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) starts from the myeloid cells that create blood forming cells such as white blood cells (except for lymphocytes), red blood cells, and platelets (About Childhood Leukemia). Hybrid or mixed lineage leukemia are rare forms of childhood leukemia, but can be treated like ALL and AML. On the other end of the spectrum is chronic, or slow growing, leukemia. Chronic leukemia is difficult to treat and are more commonly found in adults than children. There are two types of chronic leukemia: chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) is not commonly