People often discover they have leukemia through routine blood tests (like a CBC) showing abnormal white blood cell, red blood cell, or platelet counts, or when they develop persistent symptoms like extreme fatigue, frequent infections, easy bruising, swollen lymph nodes, night sweats, or weight loss that prompts a doctor visit, leading to physical exams, more specific blood tests, and often a bone marrow biopsy for confirmation.
A bone marrow biopsy helps determine the percentage of abnormal cells in your bone marrow, confirming a leukemia diagnosis. Imaging and other tests: Your doctor may order a chest X-ray, CT scan, or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan if symptoms indicate leukemia has affected your bones, organs or tissue.
Absolutely. There are a few ways that cancer and cancer treatment can cause edema. If a tumor is large enough, for instance, it can sometimes press on blood vessels or lymphatic vessels and cause swelling.
Common leukemia symptoms may include:
Frequent infections that are hard to treat. Shortness of breath. Pale skin (pallor) Easy bruising or bleeding (such as frequent nosebleeds or bleeding gums)
Leukemia cells grow too fast and fill up the bone marrow. They crowd out the good blood cells. Because they crowd out the good blood cells, there are less healthy white blood cells to fight infections. Children with leukemia can have fevers and trouble fighting infections.
According to our 2018 patient survey, 5% of leukaemia patients will experience nausea or vomiting as a symptom prior to their diagnosis. “I started vomiting regularly and barely eating anything. Many days, I could barely move for the exhaustion and dizziness.”
It is possible for leukemia to be missed in a complete blood count. While CBC results can provide valuable information, they should always be interpreted by a qualified healthcare professional who will consider other factors such as symptoms, medical history, and physical exam findings.
Some people with leukemia or myelodysplastic syndromes have bone or joint pain. This bone pain is most often felt in the long bones of the arms and legs, in the ribs, and in the breastbone.
Some forms of chronic leukemia initially produce no early symptoms and can go unnoticed or undiagnosed for years.
Leukemia is a cancer that originates in the bone marrow, which produces red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. The cancer results from genetic mutations in the DNA of blood-forming cells, causing the cells to grow and divide uncontrollably.
Leukemia can sometimes cause blood clots to develop. Symptoms of a blood clot are: a painful or swollen leg due to blood clots in the leg or tummy area.
Leukemia is the term for cancer that starts in white blood cells. Coughing is a symptom of some types of leukemias, including chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). CLL can lead to a dry cough if the condition grows and enters the lungs. However, this rarely happens.
Liver failure caused by infiltration of lymphoma or leukemia is uncommon and usually associated with a poor prognosis 1–3.
A CT scan can show enlarged lymph nodes and organs, pockets of infection in your organs, and large clusters of leukemia cells.
Leukemia symptoms include:
Bone marrow test.
Your doctor may recommend a procedure to remove a sample of bone marrow from your hipbone. The bone marrow is removed using a long, thin needle. The sample is sent to a laboratory to look for leukemia cells.
Leukaemic cancer cells can 'go to sleep' and thus avoid the effects of chemotherapy, sometimes for years.
In fact, according to our most recent patient survey, around 19% of leukaemia patients reported weight loss as a major symptom that lead to their diagnosis.
Leukemia is caused by DNA mutations in blood cells, leading to uncontrolled growth, but the exact trigger for these mutations is often unknown, likely a mix of genetic and environmental factors like radiation, benzene exposure, certain viruses, and inherited conditions (e.g., Down Syndrome). These genetic changes tell cells to keep multiplying instead of dying, crowding out healthy cells in the bone marrow.
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is often a silent disease during the initial stages, with many patients having no noticeable symptoms. CLL is commonly detected by accident when routine blood testing reveals an elevated lymphocyte count (lymphocytosis).
Some of the earliest warning signs appear in routine blood tests long before physical symptoms become severe. Common indicators include: Elevated white blood cell count: Leukemia often causes high levels of abnormal or immature white cells.
Leukemia spots, called petechiae, look like tiny, flat, pinpoint-sized red, purple, or brown dots that appear in clusters, often on arms, legs, or the mouth, and importantly, do not fade or turn white when pressed. They form from broken capillaries due to low platelets, resembling a rash but are actually tiny bleeds under the skin.
In the initial stages of diagnosing acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), your GP will check for physical signs of the condition and arrange for you to have blood tests. A high number of abnormal white blood cells, or a very low blood count in the test sample, could indicate leukaemia.
Benign reactive hyperplasia is a condition where cells increase in number, often due to infection or inflammation. It can be mistaken for leukemia because of abnormal cells in the blood or bone marrow.
Doctors consider any platelet count above 450,000 platelets per mcL to be high and define this as thrombocytosis. In contrast, they consider any platelet count below 150,000 platelets per mcL low, referring to this as thrombocytopenia. Having a low platelet count could mean a person has leukemia.