Leukaemia is a type of blood cancer that affects blood cells in your bone marrow – usually white blood cells. Generally tested by the pediatric hematologist oncologist.
Your bone marrow is a spongy tissue found inside some of your bones, and it’s where the body makes blood cells. In leukaemia, blood cells are not produced the way they should be and you may have too many, too few, or blood cells that don't work properly.
There are different types of leukaemia depending on the type of blood cell affected and how the condition develops. Some types are slow-growing (chronic) and some are fast-growing (acute).
Common symptoms of leukaemia are as follows:
· tiredness that lasts a long time and doesn’t improve with rest (fatigue)
· bruising and bleeding more easily
· repeated infections and high temperatures (fever)
· unexplained weight loss
· Swollen lymph nodes (glands in your neck, armpit and groin).
Watch and wait: Some people with slow-developing blood cancers don’t need treatment straight away – this is called ‘watch and wait’. You’ll be carefully monitored, and will only start treatment by the hematologist oncologist best doctor, if and when it’s needed. Watch and wait doesn’t mean that you can’t be treated. It’s offered when your doctor believes there’s no added benefit to starting treatment straight away.
Chemotherapy: Chemotherapy uses drugs to kill cancer cells or stop them from growing. You can have chemotherapy through a drip into a vein, as a tablet you swallow or by injection under the skin. Some people with leukaemia will need to have high doses or high-intensity chemotherapy, which can cause more side effects. Lower dose or low intensity chemotherapy is usually gentler and causes fewer side effects.
Other drug therapies: There are other drug therapies that can be used on their own or with chemotherapy. Targeted therapies are drugs that work by targeting proteins or genetic changes that cancer cells have, which normal cells don’t have. They are also sometimes called biological therapies or immunotherapy. Examples used for leukaemia are drugs called rituximab and tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), but there are others.
Stem cell transplant: Blood stem cells are blood cells at their earliest stage of development. Having a stem cell transplant involves having high doses of chemotherapy to kill the abnormal cells in your bone marrow or lymph nodes, and then receiving new blood stem cells (either your own or from a donor) through a drip.