Chronic Leukemia Essay

Leukemia is a type of blood cancer characterized by the accumulation of abnormal cells that resemble immature blood cells in the blood, bone marrow and lymphatic tissues. It was first recognized in 1845, and was named leukemia to reflect the excess of abnormal leukocytes in the blood (ency). Leukemia derives from the Greek word for leukos which means "white" and aima which means "blood” and is often considered as a disease of children, but yet it affects more adults. It is also more common in men than women and in Caucasians than African Americans; almost 30,000 cases are diagnosed in the United States each year (Jules Asher, 1989).
Most blood cells develop from stem cells which are located in the soft tissue inside most bones, called bone marrow. Stem cells mature into three different types of blood cells, which are white blood …show more content…
Two major classes of leukemia are acute leukemia which comes on suddenly and progresses rapidly and chronic leukemia which progresses slowly over a long period of time(white). Those suffering from acute leukemia, are unable to do any work of a normal white blood cell and it increases rapidly in numbers. In the early stages of chronic leukemia, the leukemia cells are still able to do some of the work of a normal white blood cell. The patient may not have any symptoms during the first stage but even before there are any symptoms, doctors often find chronic leukemia during a routine check-up (mednet). These two major classes of leukemia can be subdivided even more into two more categories based on the type of white blood cell that is affected. The disease is called lymphocytic leukemia if, the cancerous transformation occurs in the type of marrow that makes lymphocytes. It is called myelogenous leukemia, if the change occurs in the type of marrow cells that mature into platelets, red blood cells and other types of white blood cells