Acute leukemia, blood cancer, acute leukocytosis

Acute leukemia is a cancer associated with unrestrained formation of white blood cells (leukocytes) and their precursors, but the cause is still unknown.

Contents:
Synonyms
Symptoms of acute leukemia
Progression and possible causes of acute leukemia
The two different courses

Synonyms

Acute leukocytosis, blood cancer, leukemia, white blood cancer, lymphocytic leukemia, acute myeloid leukemia (AML), acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), myeloid leukemia.

Symptoms of acute leukemia

The symptoms of acute leukemia start quite suddenly, develop rapidly and variedly and are sometimes of a very general nature, which makes the exact diagnosis difficult and thereby delay the necessary, prompt to initiate chemotherapeutic treatment: lymphadenopathy and rashes, usually a rapidly increasing reduction in performance and Fatigue, non-fading fever, night sweats, weight loss and mucosal proliferation and, of course, increased susceptibility to infections. In addition, impairment of other blood cells adds to the symptoms of anemia and increased bleeding tendencies.

The fact that the leukemia cells spread in the bone marrow, they are found in the blood and they reduce the number of their own functional cells (this is accompanied by a reduced defense) and the other blood cells (anemia and bleeding tendency). In addition, they can infect organs such as the spleen, liver, kidneys, lymph nodes, meninges, etc, causing dysfunction and symptoms such as lymph node swelling.

Progression and possible causes of acute leukemia

Our blood has solid particles, the so-called blood cells, which are formed from stem cells in the bone marrow. Here there are the red blood cells (erythrocytes) for iron and oxygen transport, the blood platelets (platelets) for coagulation and the white blood cells (leukocytes) for the defense. The latter can be divided into lymphocytes for infection defense and granulocytes and monocytes for destruction (phagocytosis).

The two different courses

In principle, leukemia decides to chronic forms that can extend over several years and are initially quite normal and acute forms that can be fatal, life-threatening and untreated. The acute forms are divided into two subforms: Acute lymphocytic (ALL) and acute me- lytic leukemia (AML).

The two differ in that in acute lymphoblastic leukemia degenerate the cells that would normally become lymphocytes. It is the most common type of cancer in children. Acute myeloid leukemia affects the progenitor cells of the granulocytes in the bone marrow, the myeloblasts. She is more likely to affect older people.

As mentioned earlier, the exact cause of the acute forms of leukemia is unknown. Risk factors include bone marrow damage (e.g., from radiation), environmental toxins, other blood disorders (e.g., myelodysplastic syndrome), certain chemical agents, chemotherapies, and / or genetic predispositions, trisomy 21.

The disease was described for the first time in 1845 by the Berlin physician and pathologist Rudolf Virchow as "white blood". So he tried to express his observation of the disproportion between white and red blood cells. (Thorsten Fischer Naturopath Osteopathy)