Research into Leukemia

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/coping/youngpeople/page5


Definition of leukemia: Cancer that starts in blood-forming tissue such as the bone marrow and causes large numbers of blood cells to be produced and enter the bloodstream


In 2000, approximately 256,000 children and adults around the world developed some form of leukemia, and 209,000 died from it. About 90% of all leukemias are diagnosed in adults.

Treatments include: Most are treated with pharmaceutical medications,  Some are also treated with radiation therapy. In some cases, a bone marrow transplant.

Symptoms:  feeling sick, having fevers, chills, night sweats and other flu-like symptoms, fatigued. Some  nausea or a feeling of fullness due to an enlarged liver and spleen; weight loss and headaches can occur.

Approximately 10.9% were diagnosed under age 20
Five-year relative survival by race and sex was: 54.6% for white men

More children than ever are surviving childhood cancer. Over the last 30 years, survival into adulthood increased from 30 percent to 80 percent.
Today, about 85 percent of children with ALL live five years or more.

children 1 to 9 years old have higher survival rates than do infants or older children. However, factors such as age and white blood cell count at diagnosis are, at best, crude predictors of outcome.

Scientists know that ALL in children occurs slightly more often in boys than in girls and in white children more often than in black children.

Why would they need bone marrow?
The first is when the cancer itself has injured the bone marrow. BMT and PBSCT are commonly used in the treatment of leukemia and lymphoma. The second circumstance is when a treatment requires such large doses of chemotherapy or radiation therapy that the child's bone marrow is damaged during treatment.

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