Posts Tagged ‘Bone marrow’

Leukemia in children and its symptoms

Leukemia is a cancer of the bone marrow, the spongy center of the bones that makes blood cells. In leukemia, abnormal white blood cells divide out of control and crowd out the normal cells in the bloodstream. The abnormal white blood cells are not mature, and therefore cannot carry out their infection-fighting function in the blood.

Leukemia in children

Leukemia affects children too, and the number of child leukemia cases keeps increasing.
There are two types of leukemia – acute leukemia – a cancer that develops and evolves very fast and it affects all the white blood cells, and chronic leukemia – it develops slower and healthy white blood cells can still be found. More than 95% of the child leukemia cases are acute leukemia.
Signs and Symptoms of Childhood Leukemia
- Infection : A child with leukemia may develop an infection that doesn’t respond to antibiotics, have a high fever, and become very sick.
- Easy bleeding or bruising : A child with leukemia may bruise easily or have increased bleeding from small cuts and nosebleeds.
- Bone pain : This is due to accumulation of the leukemia cells underneath the covering of the surface of the bone or inside the joint.
- Swelling of the abdomen : Leukemia often causes enlargement of the liver and spleen.
- Swollen lymph nodes : Swelling of lymph nodes inside the chest or abdomen may also occur. These are sometimes detected only by imaging tests, such as CT or MRI scans.
- Enlargement of the thymus : Enlargement of the thymus or of lymph nodes inside the chest can compress the nearby trachea (windpipe). This can lead to coughing, shortness of breath, or even suffocation.
- Headache, seizures, vomiting: Leukemia cells can spread outside the bone marrow. This is called “extramedullary spread.” It may involve the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord), the testicles, ovaries, kidneys, lungs, heart, intestines, or other organs.

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Staging for Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia

Because leukemia starts in the bone marrow and often has spread to other organs by the time it is detected, there is no need for traditional staging. All leukemias are classified according to their genotypes, or their unique chromosomal arrangements, which also enables the physicians to determine risk factors.

Staging for Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML)

CML is divided into 3 groups that help predict outlook. Doctors call these groups phases instead of stages. The phases are based mainly on the number of immature white blood cells – myeloblasts (“blasts”) — that are seen in the blood or bone marrow.

Chronic Phase
- Patients in this phase typically have less than 10% blasts in their blood or bone marrow samples.
- These patients usually have fairly mild symptoms (if any) and usually respond to standard treatments.

Accelerated Phase
Patients are considered to be in accelerated phase if any of the following are true:
- The bone marrow or blood samples have more than 10% but fewer that 20% blasts.
- High blood basophil count (basophils making up at least 20% of the white blood cells).
- Increased white blood cell counts that do not go down with treatment
very high or very low platelet counts that are not caused by treatment
new chromosome changes in the leukemia cells.

Blast Phase
- Bone marrow and/or blood samples from a patient in this phase have more than 20% blasts.
- The blast cells often spread to tissues and organs beyond the bone marrow. These patients often have fever, poor appetite, and weight loss.