Leukemia is not a new disease. It has been with us and has been claiming lives for decades. Thank to medicine, there is now medication for leukemia, especially if treated early. What one should be aware of is how leukemia develops and what you need to do to avoid getting this.

What is Leukemia?

Leukemia is a disease brought about by the abnormal and over reproduction of immature white blood cells in the bone marrow. These abnormal white blood cells are completely useless and are just crowding the body. They look like normal cells and the body cannot recognize them form the real ones. Overtime, the bone marrow may be filled with so much of this and yet there is a few number of normal white blood cells that is responsible for the body’s immune system, without a strong immune system, the body will not be able to ward off toxins and pathogens, including bacteria and viruses that lead to other disease. As a result, simple issues like the flu can lead to more serious ones like pneumonia.

Types of Leukemia

There are only two major categories of leukemia: acute and chronic. Acute leukemia needs immediate mediation and treatment while chronic leukemia might be stalled in terms of treatment. There are other types of leukemia such as APL leukemia and AML leukemia, which may either be acute or chronic, too.

Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia APL is a malignancy found in the bone marrow. This is characterized by the deficiency in mature blood cells and excess of immature blood cells. Accordingly, the cause of acute leukemia APL is a translocation of the chromosomes labeled as 15 and 17. This type of leukemia was first introduced or recognized as a different type of leukemia back in 1957. Before, it is considered as a variant of acute myeloid leukemia, or AML.

Symptoms of APL

There are really no specific symptoms that can be found in patients who suffer acute promyelocytic leukemia. Although the common symptoms are also there, sometimes it is too late before this is diagnosed. Common symptoms are just lie with any types of leukemia such as fatigue or felling very tired, tendency to bleed or have bruises without getting physically battered or hurt. Sometimes symptoms are characterized by anemia or a decrease in red blood cells. It is also observed that there is a low count of blood platelets and very low mature white blood cells.

Treatment of APL

Although the different types of leukemia may be treated with the same approaches, it has been said that promyelocytic leukemia APL is treated differently. Common treatments for leukemia are chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and drugs. For APl leukemia treatment, almost 90% of patients get treated with an approach called all-trans-retinoic-acid or ATRA. This is also called differentiation therapy in which immature cells are forced to mature, preventing them from reproducing themselves. If these cells mature and reproduce, they are also going to reproduce mature white blood cells, thus adding power to the body’s immune system.