Thanks to the therapeutic advances we have today, survival in patients with leukemia is greater than in the past, although everything depends on the type of leukemia in question.
Both symptoms of the disease and treatment can cause nausea, vomiting, or general discomfort. These uncomfortable feelings may be accompanied by loss of appetite, so the patient should follow some recommendations from the doctor to meet his nutritional needs. But what is leukemia and what are its causes, symptoms, and treatment?
What Is Leukemia?
Leukemia is a disease caused by the blood when the bone marrow develops white blood cells with certain abnormalities (leukemia cells or leukemia cells). What happens is that these cells reproduce, leading to a spread of altered elements that do not die and that occupy the place of normal cells. In this way, healthy cells decrease, something that can make it difficult to arrive from oxygen to tissues and generate an inability to control bleeding and infections.
Since leukemia consists of a cluster of abnormal cells that reproduce in the blood, we are talking about a cancer of the blood.
Causes
- It is easy to explain what leukemia is, however, there is no cause to explain its appearance, not even a hereditary factor that clarifies something else. What does exist, however, are risk factors:
- Previous treatments to alleviate other types of cancer, i.e. have previously received radiation therapy or chemotherapy treatment. This could lead to cell damage, leading to secondary leukemia.
- Genetic disorders, such as Down syndrome, increase the risk of leukemia.
- Contact with toxic agents, whether professional, environmental, or related to unhealthy habits (smoking).
- In a few cases, have a family history of leukemia.
Symptoms of Leukemia:
Symptoms will depend on the type of leukemia, the most common being:
- Acute myeloid leukemia: Fever, loss of appetite, tiredness and night sweats.
- Chronic myeloid leukemia: Sweating, weakness, loss of appetite, and fever.
- Acute lymphocytic leukemia: tiredness, weakness, stunning sensations or dizziness, difficulty breathing, fever, infections, the appearance of bruising, and habitual bleeding (nose and gums).
- Chronic lymphocytic leukemia: loss of appetite, weakness, tiredness, fever, night sweats, stomach pain or swelling, and increased lymph nodes.
Other symptoms such as anemia or bone pain may also occur when abnormal cells have spread in the bone system.
The immune system also suffers from its consequences as it has a significant decrease in the number of leukocytes, which weakens the patient’s defenses against any infection. Also, a decrease in the amount of platelets in the body leads to the appearance of occasional bleeding (mouth, nose, rectum, or even in the brain) and stains on the skin.
Prevention
So far, preventive measures are unknown to prevent leukemia. Health professionals advise that everyone lead a healthy and balanced life, and avoid certain toxic habits. These tips help prevent other diseases and have a greater capacity to deal with leukemia treatment.
Types of Leukemia
When defining what leukemia is, it is advisable to know the different types that exist. If we take into account the speed with which the disease spreads, we can divide leukemia into two different types: acute leukemias (a faster process in which abnormal cells multiply considerably without exercising the functions of healthy red blood cells) and chronic leukemias (dearer progression, where insane cells act as healthy white blood cells).
There is another classification depending on the cell lineage that causes the disease: myeloid leukemias that begin in the myelocytes and lymphoid leukemias that develop in lymphoid cells, coming to accumulate in the lymph nodes.
Treatments for Leukemia
Treatment will depend on the particular case of each patient and the type of leukemia he has:
In lymphoblastic leukemia (acute lymphoblastic) chemotherapy is used and, in patients at high risk of relapse, peripheral blood, umbilical cord blood, or bone marrow is proposed with the help of a compatible donor.
In myeloid leukemia (acute lymphoblastic) there are 2 phases of chemotherapy: induction to remission and consolidation. In the previous case, there is also a maintenance phase with low doses, which is unfeasible in myeloid leukemia.
In terms of consolidation treatment, there are 3 possible alternatives: consolidation chemotherapy, consolidation chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation of the patient himself, and bone marrow consolidation and transplant chemotherapy from a compatible donor.
In the initial phase of chronic infocytic leukemia, no treatment is needed and it is possible to live normally for years. However, the patient should undergo regular checks to check whether the disease has progressed or remains stable.
If you go along, patients should undergo chemotherapy treatment. In addition, in recent years, several highly effective therapeutic drugs have been added. As for bone marrow transplants, it is ruled out.
In chronic myeloid leukemia, oral drugs or tyrosine kinase inhibitors are given. There are up to three different generations of medicines approved to combat this pathology.
Upon completion of treatment, the patient should undergo regular control tests to control his or her health, as treatment may cause damage to his or her body or relapses may appear.
The patient diagnosed with leukemia suffers a great impact when they know the news and mood and their social relations can decline quite a bit. Experts say that, in these cases, it is essential to find support and comfort in groups that are going through the same or through health professionals who provide emotional or psychological help.