Leukemia is a cancer of the blood caused by an abnormal proliferation of the white blood cells which fight infection. Leukemia may be chronic or acute.

What is Chronic Leukemia?

Chronic leukemia progresses gradually in several years. It is more common in adults than in children. Chronic myelogenous leukemia displays an excessive growth of myeloid cells and granulocytes and a chromosomal translocation called Philadelphia chromosome. Another type of chronic Leukemia is the Chronic Lymphocyte Leukemia. It damages the B cells DNA so that it crowds out healthy blood cells. The rare hairy cell leukemia is a sub category of the chronic lymphatic leukemia.

Signs and Symptoms

Symptoms of Chronic leukemia include fever, fatigue, weight loss and night sweats. Spleen enlargement causes stomach discomfort. Blood disorders like anemia is also a sign of chronic leukemia. The patient suffers Neutropenia -a deficiency in white blood cells and Hypogammaglobulinemia- characterized by low levels of the gamma globulin antibodies- becoming vulnerable to infections. Thrombocytopenia or low platelet level causes easy bruising and bleeding. Leucostatis may develop affecting the heart and lungs. Headaches, dizziness and confusion may occur.

Diagnosis

Blood tests and Biopsies of the bone marrow are needed for confirming a diagnosis. In case of chronic myeloid leukemia the blood count is checked to detect abnormal amounts of Granulocytes, Basophils and Eosinophils.The chronic myeloid leukemia is also diagnosed by the presence of the Philadelphia chromosome. The chronic lymphatic leukemia is diagnosed if there is lymphocytosis in the blood-which is an abnormal amount of white blood cells.

Chronic leukemia Treatment

Inhibitors of Tyrosine Kinase are use to treat chronic myelogenous leukemia. The more effective Imatinib has replaced alkylating agents, antimetabolites, steroids and interferon alfa 2b used to treat the disease. For patients who have imatinib intolerance or resistance drugs like dasatinib and nilotinib are used. Stem transplantation is used to treat patients with imatinib resistance caused by T 315I mutation. Bone marrow transplantation is also done. Treatment of patients with chronic lymphatic leukemia includes administration of the chemotherapy drug fludarabine intravenously.Chlorambucil, is an oral alternative suitable for old and weak patients.

Prognosis

Prognosis of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia is based on factors like age, type of leukemia, symptoms, phase, laboratory test results, spleen size and responsiveness to drugs. It varies with the patients; but has faced overall improvement due to better health care. Median survival rate has increased from 3 to 5 years. Chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients have heterogeneous prognosis. Median survival rate has increased from 5-6 years to 8-10 years in the last three decades. Diagnosis in the early phase of leukemia enables better prognosis.

Prevention

There is really no way to prevent any type of leukemia. It is said that folic acid in pregnant women helps to prevent childhood leukemia. Childhood leukemia is easily cured unlike leukemia in adults. With the advancement of medical science hopefully one day a preventive for chronic leukemia will be developed.

Chronic leukemia is a serious ailment. And the fight against it is surely hard. Along with apt medical care patients need lots of family support to cope with the emotional distress this disease causes.