Leukaemia: Types, Symptoms, Causes, & Treatment

Cancer is undoubtedly one of the most deadly diseases across the globe. Leukaemia or blood cancer is caused when the number of white blood cells increases in your body. As leukaemia has several types, its treatment can be complex, depending on the type. Therefore, it is essential to diagnose it early to treat the disease. 

Are you wondering about the types, stages and treatments for leukaemia? This article will be a wholesome guide for your understanding of this disease!

Leukaemia is associated with your body tissues that are responsible for formation of blood. These include the lymphatic system and the bone marrow. It is the result of the rapid overproduction of abnormal white blood cells. These cells are powerful infection fighters, and they grow and multiply as per the body's requirements. These are vital requirements for your body, protecting it from bacteria, fungus, viruses and other foreign substances.

WBCs are usually formed in the bone marrow, but sometimes these can also develop in lymph nodes, spleen and the thymus gland. After their creation, these cells travel through your bloodstream and lymphatic vessels to fight infections forming in your tissues. However, when people suffer from leukaemia or blood cancer, the excessive WBCs created in the body prevent its normal functioning. These abnormal cells spread cancer through your bloodstream.

Now that you know what leukaemia is, you must be wondering about the types of this disease. It is a complicated health condition associated with blood, and the outcomes and treatment depend on these types. The following section will give you an outline of the different types of leukaemia.

• Acute Lymphocytic Leukaemia (ALL): This is the most prevalent type of leukaemia that mostly happens in childhood. However, it can also affect adults. It usually occurs when the bone marrow cell in your body develops errors in its DNA.
• Acute Myelogenous Leukaemia (AML): This type of cancer can appear in both adults and children, although it is more common in adults. Excess immature white blood cells in the bone marrow mainly cause this. It progresses rapidly with myeloid cells interfering in RBC, WBC and platelets.
• Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia (CLL): This is a chronic cancer condition in adults, and patients can survive for years with it without requiring treatment. It develops from a type of WBC called B cells and progresses slowly. It shows light symptoms for years.
• Chronic Myelogenous Leukaemia (CML): This cancer type mainly occurs in adults and might not show symptoms for years. A chromosome mutation occurring spontaneously might cause this type of cancer. After a particular stage, cancer progresses rapidly.
• Other types: There can be different types of leukaemia, such as hairy cell leukaemia, myelodysplastic syndromes, myeloproliferative disorders and others.

A significant factor in this study includes the symptoms of leukaemia. As discussed already, different types of leukaemia have various signs. There are hardly any symptoms in the initial stages. However, the usual symptoms of this cancer include the following.

• Fever or chills 
• Weakness and fatigue
• Chronic infections 
• Pain in joints and bones
• Headaches and seizures
• Vomiting
• Weight loss
• Sweating during night-time and difficulty sleeping
• Swollen lymph nodes
• Enlarged liver or spleen
• Shortness of breath

Now that you have an idea about what the symptoms of leukaemia are, you might be curious to learn more about the science behind its formation in the body. Healthcare researchers have been working on finding the appropriate causes of leukaemia. According to them, some of the significant risk factors include the following.

• Genetic conditions such as the Down syndrome
• Previous radiation or chemotherapy for other treatments
• Exposure to chemical benzene (such as cigarette smoke)
• Other blood cancer disorder 

The significant reasons for leukaemia are blood cells acquiring changes (mutations) in their genetic material or DNA. Usually, the DNA plays the role of instructing the blood cells to grow and die at a set time. However, if you are diagnosed with leukaemia, the mutations lead your blood cells to continue growing and dividing at an abnormal level. As a result, blood cell production goes out of control and outnumbers healthy blood cells.

The different stages of leukaemia depend on the type of cancer in the patients. The following types of stages might be seen.

Stages of ALL

The following stages are seen when children are diagnosed with ALL cancer.

• Low risk: Children with WBC count less than 50,000 are low risk when under ten years of age.
• High risk: Children older than ten years with a WBC count of more than 50,000 are considered high risk.

The following stages can be seen in adults suffering from ALL. 

• Untreated: You are an adult and have just been diagnosed with ALL, about to start your treatment
• Remission: You have 5% or fewer cancerous bone marrow cells, your WBC count is average, and no symptoms are visible anymore
• Recurrent: If your leukaemia comes back after a remission

Stages of AML

• M0: AML is undifferentiated
• M1: AML has slight maturation
• M2: AML has a maturation
• M3: APL (Acute Promyelocytic Leukaemia)
• M4: AML (Acute Myelomonocytic Leukaemia)
• M4 eos: AML with Eosinophilia
• M5: AML
• M6: Acute Erythroid Leukaemia
• M7: Acute Megakaryoblastic Leukaemia

Stages of CLL

• CLL Stage 0: Presence of too many abnormal WBCs, called lymphocytes
• CLL Stage I: The lymphocyte count is more than 10,000 per sample with swollen lymph nodes
• CLL Stage II: Liver or spleen becomes enlarged
• CLL Stage III: Anaemia with reduced RBC count 
• CLL Stage IV: Apart from all the previous symptoms, blood doesn't clot normally

Stages of CML

• Chronic phase: Less than 10% of cells of your bone marrow and blood are blast cells
• Accelerated phase: 10%-19% cells of your bone marrow and blood are blast cells
• Blastic phase: More than 20% of cells of your bone marrow and blood are blast cells

While anyone can be exposed to this disease, the risks and effects of leukaemia increase with age among individuals. For instance, people aged 65 years or older are prone to be diagnosed with diseases such as acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) or chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML). On the other hand, acute lymphocytic leukaemia (ALL) is more likely to affect people under 20.

If you notice the signs and symptoms of leukaemia and visit the healthcare centre, the doctor might urge you to undergo the following tests to diagnose this cancer.

• Complete blood count: The healthcare workers will draw your blood to measure the count of RBC, WBC and platelets in it. It can help the doctor determine if the WBC count is abnormal.
• Tissue biopsy: This is a biopsy of your bone marrow or lymph nodes to determine if you have leukaemia and if it has infiltrated other body parts.
• Organ biopsy: The doctor might suggest a biopsy of specific organs, such as the liver, if there is a chance of cancer spreading in these.

Now that you know what causes leukaemia and how to diagnose it, you must be wondering about the procedure to treat it.

 This procedure depends on the type of cancer and how much it has spread in your body. In general, a few standard options to treat leukaemia include the following.

• Chemotherapy: It mainly uses drugs for killing cancer cells within your blood and bone marrow. A patient can take this medicine through a shot into the muscles or vein. Furthermore, you can also take it as a pill or inject it into the fluid around your spinal cord.
• Radiation: This therapy uses high-energy X-rays to kill the leukaemia cells or prevent them from growing further. Your doctor can either give it across your body or focus on only one part where the cancer cells are maximum.
• Biological Therapy: It is a form of immunotherapy that enables your immune system to spot and attack cancer cells from your body. Doctors usually prescribe drugs such as interleukins and interferon to boost your body's natural defence against leukaemia.
• Targeted Therapy: With this therapy, doctors use drugs to block specific genes or proteins that help cancer cells grow. It stops signals from helping cancer cells, reduces their blood supply, and kills them directly.
• Stem Cell Transplant: This therapy helps replace the leukaemia cells from your bone marrow and replace these with new and healthy ones and produce blood. You can get new stem cells from your own body or a donor. However, you will initially require high doses of chemotherapy to destroy the cancer cells before infusing new stem cells.
• Surgery: It is the final type of treatment. After that, doctors might decide to remove your spleen if they find it filled with cancer cells, which might spread to the nearby organs.

As healthcare researchers are not yet clear about the exact causes behind leukaemia, there are no specific ways of preventing it. However, according to their research and case studies, some standard practices might be helpful in this context. The following list will give you an idea about the measures for the prevention of leukaemia.

• Quit smoking: Tobacco increases the risks of multiple types of cancer, including leukaemia. Thus, if you quit smoking, you will lower your cancer chances.
• Avoid certain chemicals: Chemicals such as benzene and formaldehyde might increase the chances of getting leukaemia if you breathe these. These are common in specific workplaces and buildings. Therefore, you need to avoid breathing these.
• Moderate weight maintenance: Obesity might increase the chances of getting leukaemia. Hence, it would help maintain average weight, including daily exercises and healthy diets. 

Thus, now you know that leukaemia is a life-threatening health concern. As this article discussed, there can be different types of this cancer, and the symptoms and treatment depend on the same. Therefore, it is essential to diagnose this cancer early for proper treatment. It can be equally risky to both kids and adults.