Medical Care

Leukemia

Introduction:

Leukemia is cancer that starts in the tissue that forms blood. To understand cancer, it helps to know how normal blood cells form.

In 2000, approximately 256,000 children and adults around the world developed some form of leukemia, and 209,000 died from it.

Causes:

No single known cause for all of the different types of leukemia exists. The known causes, which are not generally factors within the control of the average person, account for relatively few cases.Leukemia, like other cancers, results from somatic mutations in the DNA.Among adults, the known causes are natural and artificial ionization, a few viruses such as HTV, and some chemicals, notably Benzene and alkylating chemotherapy agents for previous malignancies.

Treatment:

Most forms of leukemia are treated with pharmaceutical medication, typically combined into a multi-drug chemotherapy regimen. Some are also treated with radiation thearapy. In some cases, a bone marrow transplant is useful.