An Essay On Leukemia

What is Leukemia? Leukemia is a cancer in blood forming cells that are in early stages of development. Most of the time the white blood cells, but some types of leukemia start in other types of blood cells. Blood cells are form in bone marrow. Any of these cells can turn into a leukemia cell, once this happens the cell does not mature like it should. The cell may start to produce rapidly and the mutated cells probably won’t go through apoptosis like they should. These cells build up in the bone marrow and crowd out the healthy cells. Typically, leukemia cells get into the blood stream rather quickly. From the blood stream they can spread to places like lymph nodes, spleen, liver, central nervous system or other organs where the leukemia cells can cause those other cells to function irregularly.
To understand where and how leukemia occurs it helps to know a little about the blood and lymph systems. Bone marrow is soft inner part of the bone where blood cells are formed There are three different types of major blood cells; white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. In infants active blood cells are found in almost in all bones but by the teenage years they are found in mostly flat bones (skull, shoulder blades, ribs, and pelvis) and the vertebrate. Bone marrow consist of a small number of blood stem cells, more mature blood forming cells, fat cells, and supporting tissues to help the tissue grow. They go through a series of changes to make new blood cells. With this process 1 of 3 things is made- red blood cells, white blood cells, or platelets. Red blood cells carry oxygen from the lungs to all the other parts of the body and transport carbon dioxide back to the lungs. Platelets are cell fragments made by a type of bone...

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...ous cells into the spinal cord or brain.
Facts about leukemia:
1. Leukemia is the most common cancer in both children and teens. It accounts for almost 1 in 3 childhood cancers. But overall childhood leukemia is a rare disease.
2. ALL is more common in white children compared to African-American and Asian-American children. It is also more common in boys than it is in girls. AML occurs almost equally in boys and girls of all races.
3. The 5-year survival rate for children with ALL is more than 85%, children with AML have a 5-year survival rate of 60% to 70%. Reported rates for children with JMML are 50%. 5-year survival rates in children with CML aren’t very helpful because some live for a long time without the leukemia being cured, but the reported rates are 60% to 80%. Rates may be higher now with new medicines but they haven’t been used long enough to be sure.