Posts Tagged ‘Swollen Lymph Nodes’

Childhood Leukemia

Comments: 0January 5th, 2011 by admin



Leukemia severely affects a person’s immune system; the disease is characterized by low levels of leukocytes of white blood cells, which play an important role in the body’s defenses against disease. This disease can lead to other complications such as infections. However, for people who already have compromised immune systems, such as children and the elderly, developing leukemia can have some severe effects and complications. For children, the effects of leukemia can be very pronounced because battling the disease can take a toll on their fragile bodies.

Types of childhood leukemia

Just like in adult leukemia, children who develop the disease suffer either from large numbers of abnormal white blood cells or low levels of the white blood cells. Among cancers in children, leukemia accounts for about 25% of cancer cases. There are also different types of leukemia among children, categorized into two major categories: acute and chronic. Acute leukemia, or rapidly developing leukemia, is further divided into two types: Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL) and Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML). Acute leukemia accounts for 98% of all cases of childhood leukemia, with ALL being the most common. Chronic leukemia, or slowly developing leukemia, has only one type, which is Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML), and it is very rare.

Symptoms and Treatment

The symptoms that a child with leukemia exhibits are similar to the symptoms that adults with the disease exhibit. Mostly, the symptoms are manifestations that the child’s immune system is compromised, including increased episodes of fever and other infections. Children with leukemia also suffer from anemia and the other blood abnormalities found in most leukemia cases. In addition, other symptoms include bruising and bleeding very easily, pain in the bones and the joints, swollen lymph nodes, malaise, and a poor appetite.

Usually, ALL is treated with chemotherapy. However, the dosage differs from what is given to adults. The medication that is given during this therapy is very potent, which is why for children, smaller dosages are given.

The effects of leukemia can be very hard to deal with, especially for children whose immune systems can be severely compromised by the disease. However, statistics show that children with this disease exhibit some of the highest remission rates, which means that with proper treatment, the chance of beating this disease is very high among children.

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Symptoms of Chronic and Acute Leukemia

Comments: 0December 27th, 2010 by admin



Discovering leukemia while it is still in an early phase is crucial in its treatment because when the disease advances it starts to spread in the whole body and it’s much harder to be treated.

Therefore it’s important to learn the symptoms of leukemia so that you can can detect its signs and take the appropriate measures. Symptoms however may vary from one person to another and they also depend on what type of leukemia the patient has. Leukemia can be divided into two major types: acute leukemia and chronic leukemia, each having its specific symptoms.

Leukemia symptoms result from the fact that the blood cells of someone suffering from leukemia are diseased and they can’t fulfill their role anymore.

Patients with acute leukemia have too little red blood cells in their bodies which leads to a general feeling of weakness and to a pale color.

On the other hand, a person with too many abnormal white blood cells can develop fever, is very easily bruised, will suddenly start bleeding out his/her nose or gums and sometimes they will feel pain in the joints.

Other common symptoms of leukemia are pain in the abdomen, swollen lymph nodes, weight loss, sweating, and if the disease spreads to the brain headaches, disorientation, balance problems and confusion appears.

Acute leukemia develops much faster that chronic leukemia, but it’s easier to be discovered because people come at the doctor because they feel sick. Chronic leukemia develops much slower but it’s harder to detect it because very often it shows no specific symptoms and it’s discovered when it has already advanced a lot. Always feeling weakend and getting infections often can be a sign so visit your doctor for an accurate diagnosis.

If someone reports a few of these symptoms to the doctor then some special tests must be performed to determine whether the person has leukemia or not and if he/she has it then some other tests need to be done to determine what kind of treatment gives the best results.
The lymph and blood marrow must be examined and blood samples must also be processed in order to establish an accurate diagnosis. Once the leukemia diagnose is established chemotherapy usually begins. The survival rate gets higher and higher each year.

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Canine Leukemia

Comments: 0May 16th, 2010 by admin



Leukemia is one type of cancer that affects the blood. This disease is characterized by a significant increase of the leukocytes, popularly called white blood cells.

The first symptom is a large number of these cells in the blood marrow or even in the circulation. Leukemia is a result of a genetic malfunction, a mutation that happens inside the bone’s marrow. This disease has several types. It is classified taking into consideration the type of the white blood cells that are involved and also the way in which the disease is progressing.

Leukemia can derive from the bone marrow and it is called myelogenous or granulocytic leukemia and also lymphocytic leukemia when it involves the lymph nodes.

Leukemia disease can either be chronic or acute. It all depends on the kind of white cells that are affected. The chronic one is named chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) or chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The CLL in pets like dogs and cats has a lot of similarities with the human disease but still some major differences too.

The ALL, or acute lymphoid leukemia is a disease that progresses quite rapidly. A few of the symptoms include fever, anemia, random bleeding, loosing the appetite, swollen lymph nodes, panting, anxiousness, vomiting, pale gums, shifting limb lameness, lack of coordination, some infections that appear because of the week immune system. All these symptoms can cause death if the disease is not treated.

At a clinical examination, if the dog has fever or a bigger than usual spleen or liver, it is a good sign of the disease. Many mature animals develop the acute lymphoid leukemia rather then the young. This is a difference from the human disease which is quite common in children. Another important fact is that this disease can cause some ocular lesions in dogs.

The chronic leukemia has many cancer white cells that are affecting the body’s ability to fight the infections. The disease progresses slowly and it is fatal. It suppresses the immune system and then the bone marrow fails to function. The bag cells then infiltrate the other organs. The disease easily spreads into the blood, the lymph nodes, liver or spleen and into the central nervous system. The disease doesn’t create solid tumors or other solid masses. The death can be quite painful.

Discovering the leukemia can be done ding a simple blood examination and then, if there are suspicions, a bone marrow analysis.

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Posted in leukimia