This document discusses leukemia, including its symptoms, causes, types, diagnosis, and treatment. Leukemia is cancer of the blood or bone marrow that results in abnormal blood cell production. There are four main types of leukemia - acute lymphoblastic, chronic lymphocytic, acute myeloid, and chronic myeloid leukemia. Diagnosis involves blood tests, bone marrow biopsies, and other exams. Treatment depends on the type and phase of leukemia, and may include chemotherapy, targeted therapies, radiation, surgery, or stem cell transplants.

1. Adult Health Nursing
Faculty Mr: Rafique sial

2.  Leukemia is cancer of the blood or bone
marrow (which produces blood cells). A
person who has leukemia suffers from an
abnormal production of blood cells, generally
leukocytes (white blood cells).

3.  Blood clotting is poor
 Affected immune system
 Anemia
 Other symptoms (- Patients may also
experience nausea, fever chills, night sweats,
flu-like symptoms, weight loss, bone pain,. If
the liver or spleen becomes enlarged the
patient may feel full and will eat less,
resulting in weight loss.

4.  artificial ionizing radiation
 viruses - HTLV-1 (humanT-lymphotropic
virus) and HIV (human immunodeficiency
virus)
 benzene and some petrochemicals
 alkylating chemotherapy agents used in
previous cancers
 maternal fetal transmission (rare)
 hair dyes
 smoking

5.  Leukemia is malignant neoplasms of the cells
derived from either the myeloid or lymphoid
line of the hematopoietic stem cells in the
bone marrow. Proliferating abnormal and
immature cells (blast) spill out into the blood
and infiltrate the spleen, lymph nodes, and
other tissue.

6.  Acute leukemias are characterized by rapid
progression of symptoms. High numbers
(greater than 50,000/mm3) of circulating
blast weaken blood vesselwalls, with high risk
for rupture and bleeding, including
intracranial hemorrhage.

7.  Lymphocytic leukemias involve immature
lymphocytes and their progenitors.They
arise in the bone marrows but infiltrate the
spleen, lymph nodes, central nervous
system (CNS), and other tissues.
Myelogenous leukemias involve the
pluripotent myeloid stem cells and, thus,
interfere with the maturation of
granulocytes, erythrocytes, and
thrombocytes.

9.  Also known as acute lymphoblastic
leukemia - this is the most common type of
leukemia among young children, although
adults can get it as well, especially those over
the age of 65.The 5-year survival rate is
greater than 85 percent among children.

10.  This is most common among adults over 55,
although younger adults can get it as well. It
is the most common type of leukemia in
adulthood. CLL hardly ever affects children.
The majority of patients with CLL are men,
over 60 percent.The 5 year survival rate of
treated CLL patients is 82 %. Experts say CLL
is incurable

11.  AML is more common among adults than
children, and affects males significantly more
often than females. Patients are treated with
chemotherapy. In children diagnosed with
AML, the 5-year survival rate is 60-70
percent, though the overall survival rate is
26.6 percent.

12.  The vast majority of patients are adults.
According to the National Cancer Institute,
the 5-year survival rate is 65.1 percent.
However, many people with CML have a gene
mutation that responds to targeted cancer
therapy, called Gleevec. Gleevec (imatinib) is
commonly used to treat CML, as well as some
other drugs.

13. Complete blood count
(CBC)
 A CBC measures the number and quality of white blood
cells, red blood cells and platelets. Leukemia and other
conditions can cause abnormal blood cell counts.
 Immature blood cells (called leukemia cells, or blasts) are
not normally seen in the blood, so doctors will suspect
leukemia if there are blasts or blood cells do not look
normal.


14.  A tissue sample taken from your hipbone or
other large bone used to look for cancer cells.
This is the only way to know whether leukemia
cells are in your bone marrow.You will be given a
local anesthetic to help reduce pain.Then, the
doctor or nurse practitioner will insert a hollow
needle to remove samples of bone marrow
(called bone marrow aspiration) and a thicker
hollow needle to remove a small piece of bone
and bone marrow (bone marrow biopsy).

15.  Can show swollen lymph nodes or other signs
of leukemia or infection in your chest.
Cytogenetics – a lab test to look at the
chromosomes (strands of DNA) of cells from
samples of blood, bone marrow, or lymph
nodes. If abnormal chromosomes are found,
the test can show what type of leukemia you
have. For example, people with CML have an
abnormal chromosome called the
Philadelphia chromosome.

16.  A test in which your doctor may remove some
cerebrospinal fluid (the fluid that fills the spaces
in and around the brain and spinal cord). For this
procedure, which takes about a half-hour and is
performed with local anesthesia, the doctor uses
a long, thin needle to remove fluid from the
lower spine.You must lie flat for several hours
afterward to keep from getting a headache.The
lab checks the fluid for leukemia cells or other
signs of problems

17.  As the various types of leukemias affect
patients differently, their treatments depend
on what type of leukemia they have.The type
of treatment will also depend on the patient's
age and his state of health.

18.  Treatment for patients with acute leukemias
should start as soon as possible.The
mainstay of treatment is still chemotherapy,
which will be tailored to the type of cancer a
patient has. Sometimes, chemotherapy may
be given in three phases: induction,
consolidation and maintenance. In some
cases, a bone marow transplant may be
warranted (allogeneic stem
cell transplantation).

19.  Chronic leukemia treatment is tailored to the
type of cancer a person has and what phase it is
in.Types of treatment include targeted therapy,
interferons, chemotherapy, radiation therapy,
surgery and stem cell transplant.Targeted
therapy is different than chemotherapy, because
it attacks a specific part of the cancer cell.
Examples of this include Gleevec (imatinib
mesylate) for CML, Sprycel (dasatinib), and
Tarigna (nilotinib).

20.  https://www.cancer.gov/research/progress/snapshot
s/leukemia
 https://www.cancer.gov/types/leukemia
 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20516235