Health news blog

Leukemia is a cancer of the blood-forming tissues that leads to proliferation of millions of immature white blood cells. These abnormal cells crowd out normal white blood cells (which fight infection), platelets (which control hemorrhaging), and red blood cells (which prevent anemia). As a result, symptoms such as fatigue, paleness, weight loss, easy bruising, repeated infections, nosebleeds, and other forms of hemorrhaging occur. In children, these symptoms can appear suddenly.

Leukemia can be acute or chronic in nature and can strike both sexes and all age groups. Chronic leukemia can develop over several months and have few symptoms. Although many people believe that leukemia is a childhood disease, leukemia struck many more adults (28,200) than children (2,600) in 2000. The 5-year survival rate for patients with leukemia is 38 percent, due partly to very poor survival for patients with some types of leukemia. Over the last 30 years, however, there has been a dramatic improvement in survival of patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia – from a five-year survival rate of 4 percent for people diagnosed in the early 1960s to 28 percent in the early 1970s to 59 percent in the mid-1990s. In children, the improvement has been from 4 percent to 81 percent.

*29/277/5*