Leukemic cells
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Leukemic cells |
What is Leukemia?
Leukemias are cancers of early blood-forming cells, which originate from the
bone marrow.
Clinical
diagnosis
Leukemias may present in the acute or chronic forms depending on the rapidity
of progression. They may also be divided into the myeloid or lymphoid subtypes
depending on the morphology and biology of the abnormal cells.
They may cause problems of infections, bleeding, breathlessness and symptoms from the involvement of the various bodily organs.
Treatment
of Leukemia
In the past, having leukemia usually had very poor outcome. However, advances
in chemotherapy meant that many of these patients could go into prolonged remission.
However, the majority of patients could not be cured with chemotherapy alone. Recent advances in bone marrow transplantation have meant that a cure could be achieved for the most of patients with leukemia who had a full matched sibling donor. Novel stem cell sources e.g. matched unrelated donors, cord blood stem cells and fetal liver stem cells are being explored.
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Leukemic
cells
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Future advances in chemotherapy may mean improved survival. Immunotherapy (stimulating the immune system to fight the cancer cells) is a new strategy that is being studied in the fight against leukemia and also holds great promise.
