Tuesday, March 22, 2011

What are different types of Leukemia

The cancer that occurs in blood-forming tissues such as the bone marrow is termed as blood cancer or leukemia. In this disease, a large number of blood cells are produced and enter into the blood stream. It has two main categories:
  1. Lymphocytic leukemia
  2. Myelogenous leukemia
These are further divided into four sub-classes that are:

  • Acute lymphoblastic leukemia(ALL)
  • Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)
  • Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML)
  • Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML)

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)
Among young children, it is the most common type of blood cancer but adults also become a victim of it especially those at the age of 65 or above.

Treatment includes radiation and chemotherapy.

Subtypes are:
  • Precursor B acute lymphoblastic leukemia
  • Precursor T acute lymphoblastic leukemia
  • Burkitt’s leukemia
  • Acute biphenotypic leukemia
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)
This type of cancer mostly affects people over the age of 55 but can sometime occur in younger ones also. Among children its occurrence is almost zero. Two thirds of these patients are males. The horrible fact is, this cancer is incurable but there are some treatments that have been found to be effective. B-cell prolymphocytic leukemia is one of its sub-types and more serious than CLL.

Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML)
This type of leukemia affects adults more than children and is common among men. The treatment comprises of chemotherapy.

Sub-types are:
  • Acute promyelocytic leukemia
  • Acute myeloblastic leukemia
  • Acute megakaryoblatic leukemia
Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML)
Chronic myelogenous leukemia mainly affects adults. The occurrence in children is uncommon as it affects a small number of them. This cancer is treated with imatinib (Gleevec) or other drugs prepared specifically for the patient of CML. Luckily the survival rates of this caner is high that is about 90%. Chronic monocytic leukemia is a subtype of CML.

Related Stories: