Battling And Beating Cancer

The second most common category of blood cancer is leukemia. Leukemia is cancer of the blood and bone marrow, the spongy center of bones where our blood cells are formed. The disease develops when blood cells produced in the bone marrow grow out of control. There are over 298,170 leukemia survivors in the United States, with approximately 47,150 new cases diagnosed and 23,540 deaths a year from the disease.

 The most common types of leukemia are: acute myeloid leukemia (AML); chronic myeloid leukemia (CML); acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL); and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). These types account for approximately 90% of leukemias. There also is hairy cell leukemia, chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, and juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia. Once again, the stage and type often are important determinants of treatment and prognosis.  Leukemia developing in the lymphocytes (lymphoid cells) is called lymphocytic leukemia. Leukemia developing in the granulocytes or monocytes or myeloid cells is called myelogenous leukemia. Acute leukemias (either lymphocytic or myelogenous) involve new or immature cells (or blasts) that remain immature and incapable of performing their functions. The blasts increase in number rapidly, and the disease progresses quickly. Chronic leukemias involve some blast cells, but they are more mature and are able to perform some of their functions. The cells tend to grow more slowly and the number increases less quickly, so the disease progresses gradually.