The treatment depends on the type of leukaemia, the stage or phase of the disease, the severity of your symptoms, your age and health, and your wishes. Most people with acute leukaemia need treatment straight away, while people with chronic leukaemia may not need treatment for years.
Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) often develops very slowly. You might need little or no treatment. Although it is not usually curable, the disease can be under control for many years.
Chronic Leukemia May Go Undetected
It may take months or even several years before the disease begins to cause symptoms that alert the patient that something is wrong.
If left untreated, you can develop serious complications from the disease such as anemia and symptoms such as fatigue and shortness of breath, bleeding and difficulty fighting off infections or frequent infections.
While there is currently no cure for leukemia, it is possible to treat the cancer to prevent it from coming back. Treatment success depends on a range of factors. Treatment can include: chemotherapy.
People in stages 0 to II may live for 5 to 20 years without treatment. CLL has a very high incidence rate in people older than 60 years. CLL affects men more than women. If the disease has affected the B cells, the person's life expectancy can range from 10 to 20 years.
If caught early, leukemia can be cured by undergoing several cancer treatments.
In the United States, overall, 5-year survival among people diagnosed with leukemia is 65%. However, these statistics vary greatly according to the specific subtype of disease: Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) 5-year survival rate is 88%. Acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) 5-year survival rate is 71.3%.
Chronic leukemia usually gets worse slowly, over months to years, while acute leukemia develops quickly and progresses over days to weeks. The two main types of leukemia can be further organized into groups that are based on the type of white blood cell that is affected — lymphoid or myeloid.
Acute leukemia symptoms can often appear suddenly
With acute leukemia, symptoms tend to develop very quickly. You may suddenly spike a fever that won't go away, develop an infection for no apparent reason, or start bleeding spontaneously from your nose or gums and not be able to stop it.
Many people are diagnosed with CLL even though they do not have any symptoms. The disease may be suspected because of abnormal results from blood tests that were ordered either as part of an annual physical or a medical examination for an unrelated condition.
Chronic leukemia often causes only a few symptoms or none at all. Signs and symptoms usually develop gradually. People with a chronic leukemia often complain that they just do not feel well. The disease is often found during a routine blood test.
Leukemia starts in the soft, inner part of the bones (bone marrow), but often moves quickly into the blood. It can then spread to other parts of the body, such as the lymph nodes, spleen, liver, central nervous system and other organs.
The slow-growing form of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the least serious type of leukemia.
Mel Mann was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia and given three years to live — more than 27 years ago. He enrolled in one of the first clinical trials for a drug called Gleevec (imatinib).
Generally for all people with ALL:
more than 65 out of 100 people (more than 65%) will survive their leukaemia for 5 years or more after being diagnosed.
People may receive maintenance therapy to help keep the cancer in remission, but chronic leukemia can seldom be cured with chemotherapy. However, stem cell transplants offer some people with chronic leukemia the chance for cure.
There are different types of leukemia which can be grouped into acute leukemias and chronic leukemias, and it's a complete myth that leukemia is incurable. Thanks to advancements in treatment such as better chemotherapy and transplant regimens, many patients can be cured of their disease.
Some signs of leukemia, like night sweats, fever, fatigue and achiness, resemble flu-like symptoms. Unlike symptoms of the flu, which generally subside as patients get better, leukemia symptoms generally last longer than two weeks, and may include sudden weight loss, bone and joint pain and easy bleeding or bruising.
Stage I: The patient has lymphocytosis and enlarged lymph nodes. The patient does not have an enlarged liver or spleen, anemia, or low levels of platelets. Stage II: The patient has lymphocytosis and an enlarged spleen and/or liver and may or may not have swollen lymph nodes.
Chronic leukemia involves more-mature blood cells. These blood cells replicate or accumulate more slowly and can function normally for a period of time. Some forms of chronic leukemia initially produce no early symptoms and can go unnoticed or undiagnosed for years.
Adults between the age of 65 and 74 have the highest risk of developing leukemia. Chronic leukemia, such as chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), is the most common type of leukemia seen in people over the age of 50, with the median age of diagnosis being around 71.