Leukaemia is a cancer of white blood cells. White blood cells are important for the body to fight infections and these blood cells form in the bone marrow. The bone marrow produces abnormal white blood cells and the cells crowd and block out the healthy blood cells, making it hard for the healthy ones to do its work. Specifically focusing on acute lymphocytic leukemia, it is a cancer of bone marrow and blood and can progress and spread rapidly if no treatment is done. And as of now, there is not a clear cause of this disease. Acute lymphocytic leukemia results from either an acquired or genetic material of a developing stem cell in the bone marrow. Stem cells specifically form blood cells ranging from white cells, red cells, and platelets. As a result, acute lymphocytic leukemia starts in the stem cell in the bone marrow and it can spread to other parts of the body such as the central nervous system, lymph nodes, and more. Some of the more common symptoms that results from this disease would be weakness or constantly feeling tired, fever, easy bruising or bleeding, infections that constantly keep coming back, and more. Patients that have this disease have several non-specific symptoms such as weight loss, night sweats, loss of appetite, fatigue, and others as well.
One of the major risk factors of acute lymphocytic leukemia is that there are no obvious or specific cause of this disease as mentioned. Some other risk factors associated with the disease include exposure to high doses of radiation therapy which is one the of the main results in children who are affected by acute lymphocytic leukemia. Or previous exposure to chemotherapy and radiotherapy which can cause this disease in adults. Or genetic disorders such as down syndrome and others, in which increases the chances in developing this disease. And the research is still continuing on finding other risk factors such as environmental relationships and effects of developing acute lymphocytic leukemia. The diagnostic methods used for acute lymphocytic leukemia would be blood tests and is used when the doctor comes to the conclusion that a patient has the disease based on the symptoms as mentioned earlier. The doctor will examine the levels of different types of cells in the patient’s blood through a test called a complete blood count. Common in patients with the disease would be low levels of red blood cells and platelets and high levels of white blood cells. Another diagnostic method would be bone marrow aspiration and biopsy, if the blood test shows abnormalities in the number or appearance of the white blood cells, a bone marrow aspiration and biopsy will be done. And a common site for this procedure is the pelvic bone, in which a small amount of a solid tissue is removed by using a needle and afterwards is used to diagnosed if the disease is present in the patient. Another method would be lumbar puncture (spinal tap) in which the doctor uses a needle to take a sample of the cerebral spinal fluid to find out if it contains cancer cells. Imaging test can be used to learn more about the cause of symptoms or to help diagnose infections that the patient may have as well.
After the process of diagnosing the disease, there are many different treatment options for acute lymphocytic leukemia such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy, stem cell transplants, and targeted therapy. Other treatments such as surgery, radiation therapy, or monoclonal antibodies may be used as a treatment option in certain and special circumstances. Treatment of acute lymphocytic leukemia lasts for about two years. The first option of treatment would be chemotherapy and the process would be drugs injected into a vein or muscle, skin or taken by mouth. The drugs are able to travel through the bloodstream to reach the cancer cells in the body and thus very effective for cancers such as leukemia that has spread throughout the body. And chemo is given in cycles so the body has time to recover and not everyone is recommended this treatment due to poor health, age and more, as well as the possible dangerous side effects. As for targeted therapy, which is therapy that targets specific parts of cancer cells that have already developed within the body. And it works differently than chemotherapy as explained earlier, target therapy has different and most of the time less severe side effects and is extremely useful in certain cases of acute lymphocytic leukemia. For example, acute lymphocytic patients with Philadelphia chromosome, there are specific drugs in which attack this specific abnormal chromosome. Research and studies shows that by adding one of these drugs alongside possible chemo helps more patients go into remission after treatment. Thus continuing on these drugs can also keep leukemia from coming back. And these drugs are taken daily as pills. As for the last treatment option, stem cell transplant, it allows doctors to use higher doses of chemo to kill the cancer cells. After these treatments are finished, the patient receives a transplant of blood-forming stem cells to restore the bone marrow. Blood-forming stem cells used for a transplant are obtained from the blood, bone marrow, or from umbilical cord blood. There are two main types of stem cell transplants, allogeneic stem cell transplant and autologous stem cell transplant. Allogeneic stem cell transplant is when the stem cells come from someone else and this usually the preferred method of transplant by most patients. As for autologous stem cell transplant, it is when the patients receive back his or her own cells. Acute lymphocytic leukemia affects all people of different age and gender and as of right now there is no clear cause of this disease, but there is constant research for the cause and possibilities of preventing it and better treatments for the patients affected by this disease.