Leukemia Essay

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Childhood leukemia is a devastating disease that often leads to death situations. One has to know that Leukemia is not just a word, but also a reality. “Over half of children diagnosed with cancer each year have leukemia” (Ruccione). There are many types of leukemia, but there four main types that appear among minors. Through this research, one will discover the different aspects of this cancer and in knowing this may help understand and learn about Leukemia more.
Childhood Leukemia is a blood cancer that begins in early blood-forming cells that are in the bone marrow. It is also described into two major groups, acute (fast growing) or chronic (slow growing), but almost all childhood leukemia is acute (American cancer society ). The white blood cells help to fight infections in the immune system, but in Leukemia, the bone marrow creates abnormal white blood cells. The bone marrow is the soft material in the center of the bones. These leukemia cells do not go through the normal process of maturing. Many people may not know that the most childhood cancer that leads to deaths is childhood Leukemia. This illness is a 1 out of 3 cancer that is affecting adolescents worldwide (Key statistics).
(“What is causing this cancer to affect children?”) Up till this day, there has not been an exact cause of why Leukemia has been working its way up in impacting minors’ life. “Scientists have made great progress in understanding how certain changes in the DNA inside normal bone marrow cells can cause them to become leukemia cells (American Cancer Society. Cancer Facts ). Even though inherited disease is a risk of developing this cancer, in most cases it does not seem to be caused by that. In saying that, there are many risk factors that follow th...

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...eukemia. As stated before, CLL mainly affects older adults. This disease has about 15,720 new cases. “The five-year survival rate of people with CLL is about 79 percent (Statistic CLL).
There are an estimated number of 5,980 cases diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia. Ten percent of the leukemia cases are involved in CML. It affects Whites more than African-American as well. As well as most of the other subtypes of leukemia, this type affects more boys than girls (Key statistics).
Leukemia in children is quickly rising and keeps targeting minors. Not everything has turned into a disaster during this illness because there is a dramatically better chance of a survival. “I started in this field in 1973, and it was between then and the beginning of the eighties that we started to see significant numbers of kids surviving this disease” (Ruccione).

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