Acute leukemia...

Adult Acute Leukemia: A common term that encircles all the forms of acute leukemia in adults, adult acute leukemia is a type of cancer that disrupts the orderly process of blood cell development and produces new cells when the body does not need them.

Acute Myeloid Leukemia: Before getting down to the finer details, let’s have a look at what is meant by acute leukemia as a whole. A disease involving an extra production of the leukocytes or white blood cells and characterized by their immature and abnormal appearance causing a very high Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate is termed as leukemia, that are classified according to morphologic, cytochemical, and immunologic criteria.

A type of cancer of the blood that also affects the bone marrow to create abnormal myeloblasts, red blood cells and platelets, acute myeloid leukemia or AML is the most common type that affects the adults. The type of immature white blood cells AML gives rise to are called myeloid blasts which, do not mature into healthy white blood cells, thus proving insufficient for carrying on with their usual functions. They also crowd the bone marrow and the blood leaving less room for healthy blood cells, aggravating infection, anemia and easy bleeding. Moreover, just like any other forms of cancer, the leukemia cells spread out; there are instances where they even captured the central nervous system.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia: Also termed as acute lymphocytic leukemia or acute lymphoid leukemia, the symptom of the disease depend on the concentration of leukemia cells at different parts of the body. The disease, however; induces a feeling of weakness, shortness of breath and a sickly pallor, because of the decreasing number of RBCs; the low white blood cell count leads to frequent infections that become hard to treat; low platelet counts hamper normal clotting of blood and high concentration of leukemia cells cause pain in the bones and joints. Other signs of the disease are a lack in appetite, headache and vomiting, which are less common if compared to the former ones.

Acute Promyelocytic leukemia: Abbreviated as APL, it is a malignancy of the bone marrow that causes a deficiency of matured myeloid cells and an excess of immature cells called promyelocytes. The cause of APL is a translocation between chromosomes 15 and 17, thus making it a genetic disease. Characterized by a pronounced tendency to hemorrhage that manifests itself as little bleeding spots, bruises, nosebleeds and blood in the urine, the treatment of APL is done with all-trans-retinoic acid or ATRA, that activates the retinoid receptor RAR and causes the promyelocytes to mature and prevents them from proliferating.