ALL starts in the bone marrow (the soft inner part of certain bones, where new blood cells are made). Most often, the leukemia cells invade the blood fairly quickly.
Stem cells form blood cells (white cells, red cells and platelets). Although ALL starts in a stem cell in the bone marrow, it can spread to other areas such as the central nervous system, the lymph nodes and, more rarely, the testes.
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.
Some symptoms, like night sweats, fever, fatigue and achiness, resemble flu-like symptoms. Unlike symptoms of the flu, which generally subside as you 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 1 – A patient has high levels of white blood cells and enlarged lymph nodes. Stage 2 – A patient has high levels of white blood cells and is anemic. He or she may also have enlarged lymph nodes. Stage 3 – A patient has high levels of white blood cells and is anemic.
"A patient may be tested for leukemia if he or she has unexplained weight loss, night sweats or fatigue, or if he or she bruises or bleeds easily," Dr. Siddon says. "Sometimes routine blood work shows an unexplained elevated number of white blood cells."
In CLL, the leukemia cells grow out of control and crowd out normal blood cells. These cells often build up slowly over time. Many people don't have any symptoms for at least a few years. In time, the cells can spread to other parts of the body, including the lymph nodes, liver, and spleen.
So while you may be able to see if you have genetic markers for future cancer development, there's currently no home test available that can tell you whether you have leukemia currently. Possible tests available for home use can give you an idea of your overall health and risk factors, but they can't diagnose leukemia.
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.
By looking at a sample of your blood, your doctor can determine if you have abnormal levels of red or white blood cells or platelets — which may suggest leukemia. A blood test may also show the presence of leukemia cells, though not all types of leukemia cause the leukemia cells to circulate in the blood.
Cancers (including ALL) can be caused by mutations (changes) that turn on oncogenes or turn off tumor suppressor genes. These types of changes can stop bone marrow cells from maturing the way they normally would, or help the cells grow out of control.
Overall, about 4 of every 10 cases of ALL are in adults. ALL is not a common cancer, accounting for less than half of 1% of all cancers in the United States. The average person's lifetime risk of getting ALL is about 1 in 1,000.
Response rates to ALL treatment
In general, about 80% to 90% of adults will have complete remissions at some point during these treatments. This means leukemia cells can no longer be seen in their bone marrow. Unfortunately, about half of these patients relapse, so the overall cure rate is in the range of 40%.
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.
Generally, for all people with ALL:
More than 65 out of 100 people (more than 65 percent) will survive their leukemia for five years or more after being diagnosed. This is for all ages. Younger people tend to do better than older people.
Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is a type of cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow.
People often feel ill quite quickly. Most symptoms of acute leukaemia are caused by leukaemia cells filling the bone marrow. This means healthy blood cells do not move into the blood as normal.
Clinical and epidemiological studies have shown that stress-related biobehavioral factors are associated with accelerated progression of several types of cancer, including solid epithelial tumors and hematopoietic tumors such as leukemia (Antoni et al., 2006; Chida et al., 2008).
If caught early, leukemia can be cured by undergoing several cancer treatments.
Who gets leukemia? Although it is often thought of as a children's disease, most cases of leukemia occur in older adults. More than half of all leukemia cases occur in people over the age of 65.
Vitamin B12 deficiency can cause profound alterations in the bone marrow. These alterations can mimic the more serious diagnosis of acute leukemia.
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is usually suspected when a test finds abnormal blood counts and leukemic cells, or blasts, appear in the blood. Then, the diagnosis is established by examination of the bone marrow via bone marrow aspiration and biopsy.
While acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children is more common than other types of cancer, it has high cure rates. Survival rates are lower in adults, but they are improving. The 5-year relative survival rate for ALL is 68.8%. The statistics further break down to 90% in children and 30-40% in adults.
There are no alternative treatment options available that can treat, cure, or manage leukemia or any other type of cancer. However, there are some methods that may help ease certain symptoms of leukemia or help reduce the side effects of treatment.