Download leukaemia

Survivor's Story
A diagnosis of a life threatening disease can be
very overwhelming and often times
devastating, particularly when you have been
delivered the news more than once. Upon my
initial diagnosis, nearly seven years ago, I
remember so distinctly the physician's words
as they lashed out at me, "You have dangerous
disease".
How could this be? At the time, I held a job that
required me to travel all over the world. It was
not unusual to be on a plane several times a
week. Anyone that was a road warrior would
be tired and bruised. Little did I know that I
was sick and deathly sick for that matter.
Suddenly my world began to change and what
was about to happen to me was the start of an
incredible experience.
Preparation & Hope
Like any journey, there is always preparation. Even
though the statistics were not promising, I knew that I
would have to compose a plan so that I would
successfully achieve remission. This proved to be a
strenuous endeavor since I was still digesting the
diagnosis. Hope is an essential part of the will to live .
I was already a survivor, for I was still alive after
hearing that I had that disease. The greatest single
mortality factor in this disease is the patient believing
that death and it are synonymous..
What is leukemia?
Leukemia is cancer of the blood cells. Blood cells are
made by your bone which is marrow, the soft tissue in
the middle of most bones. In leukemia, the bone
marrow starts making too many white blood cells,
and sometimes these cells don't work right. These
cells keep growing when they are supposed to stop.
They also grow faster than your other cells. Over
time, these abnormal cells crowd out your normal
white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets.
The characteristics of normal cells
Normal body cells have a number of
important characteristics. They can
 Reproduce themselves exactly
 Stop reproducing at the right time
 Stick together in the right place
 Self destruct if they are damaged
 Become specialized or 'mature'
How cancer cells are different
Cancer cells are different to normal cells in several
ways. These are some features of cancer cells
 They carry or reproducing.
 They don’t obey signals from other neighboring
cells .
 They don’t stick together.
 become specialized , but stay immature.
 They don’t die if they move to another part of the
body .
Cancer cells don't stop reproducing
Unlike normal cells, cancer cells do not
stop reproducing after they have doubled
50 or 60 times. This means that a cancer
cell will go on and on and on doubling.
So one cell becomes 2, then 4, then 8,
then 16....
The cancer cells may be able to stop
themselves self destructing. Or they may
self destruct more slowly than they
reproduce, so that their numbers continue
to increase. Eventually a tumour is
formed that is made up of billions of
copies of the original cancerous
cell. Scientists describe cancer cells as
being 'immortal'.
Cancer cells do not obey signals
Something in the cancer cells overrides the
normal signaling system. This may be because
the genes that tell the cell to reproduce keep on
and on firing. Or because the genes that
normally tell the cell to stop reproducing have
been damaged or lost. So the cancer cell keeps
on doubling, regardless of the damage the
extra cells cause to the part of the body where
the cancer is growing.
Cancer cells do not stick together
Cancer cells can lose the molecules on their
surface that keep normal cells in the right
place. So they can become detached
from their neighbours.
This partly explains how cancer cells spread to
other parts of the body
Cancer cells do not become
specialized
Unlike normal cells, cancer cells do not carry on
maturing once they have been made. In fact,
the cells in a cancer can become even less
mature over time. With all the reproducing, it
is not surprising that more of the genetic
information in the cell can become lost. So the
cells become more and more primitive and
tend to reproduce more quickly and even more
haphazardly
Grade
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The more normal a cancer cell looks, the
lower its grade
The more abnormal or less well developed a
cancer cell is, the higher its grade.
We can classification these as low, medium or
high grade. or 1, 2, or 3 grade where grade 1
is low grade and grade 3 is high when a low
grade cancer is likely to be less aggressive in
its behavior than a high grade one.
What causes leukemia?
is no single known cause for all of the different
types of leukemia. The different leukemias
likely have different causes, and very little is
certain about what causes them. Researchers
have strong suspicions about four possible
causes:
 Natural or artificial ionizing radiation .
 Certain kinds of chemicals .
 Some viruses .
 Genetic presdispositions .
Symptoms
Like all blood cells, leukemia cells travel
through the body. Depending on the
number of abnormal cells and where
these cells collect, patients with leukemia
may have a number of symptoms.
Common symptoms of leukemia may include
 Fevers or night sweats.
 Frequent infections
 Feeling weak or tired
 Headache
 Bleeding and bruising easily (bleeding gums,
purplish patches in the skin, or tiny red spots
under the skin)
 Pain in the bones or joints
 Swelling or discomfort in the abdomen (from
an enlarged spleen )
 Swollen lymph nodes , especially in the neck
or armpit
 Decreased appetite and weight loss because
you feel full and don't want to eat
Types of leukemia
There are various types of bone marrow cells,
various types of leukemia can develop each
requiring different treatments. The main types
of leukemia are as follows:
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia
(ALL)
 this is a cancer of immature lymphocyte cells,
known as lymphoblasts. This disease is the
most common type of leukemia in young
children, usually between the ages of 1 and 7
and is quite rare in adults.
Acute myelogenous leukemia
(AML)
 this is a cancer of the immature myeloid cells.
This disease occurs mainly in adults but can
also affect children.
Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia
(CLL)
 this is a cancer of the lymphocyte cells. This
disease is the most common type of leukaemia
affecting adults, and is very rare in children.
Chronic myelogenous leukemia
(CML)
This is a cancer of the neutrophils cells. This
type of leukemia is rare in children and
commonly affects male adults more than
females.
How can treatment of leukemia?
Treatment depends on what kind of leukemia
you have and how far along it is. Treatment
can range from watchful waiting to a stem cell
transplant. Usually it includes chemotherapy
and sometimes radiation treatments
Living with cancer
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The patient have the cancer cell have change in life
and relation ship
live each dayThink about how you want to spend
your time what is important to you and what is
not. Some of your future plans
–Many hospital cancer department have asocial
worker available for patients.
meeting the challenge when the cancer recure
taking time :support for people with cancer and the
people who care about them
Thank you
Prepared by :
Sarah Al-wosaibai
Ebtisam Al-Gerani
Ayat Al-Abbas
Fadilah Aleo
Sukainah Albo hussain
Muntaha Al-Marhon
Khadejah Al-Hajji