Essay Example on Leukemia: A Deadly Blood Cancer Affecting All Ages

Introduction

Leukemia is a melanoma of the blood or the bone marrow which is responsible for the production of blood cells. It develops due to a problem with the white blood cells and is most likely to affect older people with age above 55years. However, it also affects young people below the age of 15 years. The cancer is lethal, with estimated deaths being reported in the twentieth of thousands in the United States of America. Its acute form develops rapidly worsening by the days, but chronic is quite slow. The disease is a result of damages on the DNA of developing leucocytes, another name for the white blood cells. The resultant is the uncontrolled division and growth of the cells. Science has it that healthy blood cells die after performing their functions and are replaced by new ones from the bone marrow. This is not the case with the defective white blood cells because they instead build in number and occupy more space. The production of more blood cells crowds the blood preventing the normal functioning of the healthy blood cells, which are eventually outnumbered.

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There are several risk factors for this particular cancer of the blood. Artificial ionizing radiation is significant factor leukemia, which the patient may have undergone during the treatment of another cancer. There are also certain viruses, which have been linked to the development of cancer. One such virus is the human T-lymphotropic virus (HTLV-1), which has been associated with Leukemia by scientists. Other risk factors include chemotherapy, exposure to benzene, and presence of underlying genetic conditions such as Down syndrome, which increases the leukemia risks in children. The family history of people with Leukemia could also be a risk for Leukemia in related families. There are also other risk factors of the disease. It is significant to note that the kind of treatment depends on the nature of Leukemia that the patient is suffering from.

Treatment of Leukemia

Treatment of Leukemia by Chemotherapy

The method is comprised of giving several medications to the patient, where each medication brings destruction to the tumor cells in various ways. The destroyed cells become vulnerable to treatment. Chemotherapy is usually given orally in the form of a pill or intravenously. It may also be delivered intrathecally into the cerebrospinal fluid, a treatment procedure targeted at the cancer cells present in the brain and the spinal cord. Ports are placed into patients to deliver the chemotherapy, give fluids, and draw blood samples; this is aimed to lessen the discomfort from pricks by needles. Throughout the process, regular blood tests and other tests are done to check for the defective cells are make necessary modifications in the treatment process.

The most common treatment of acute Leukemia by chemotherapy starts with induction to the process, which is caused by intensification or consolidation, and, lastly, the chemotherapy itself. The induction process, as observed above, involves giving a combination of drugs to weaken the cells and bring the blood concentration to be normal (Kantarjian et al., 2017). The intensification process is aimed to kill the remaining tumor cells that are invisible in the bone marrow and the blood. Some patients undergo maintenance therapy, which is aimed at preventing the recurrence of the disease after treatment.

Chemotherapy is not all rosy, as there are cases where other normal cells have been destroyed. Normal cells that may be a victim of the chemotherapy treatment process include the bone marrow cells, hair cells, mouth, and also the GI tract cells. The ability of the bone marrow to yield adequate cells may also be significantly affected. It is also important to note that not all patients experience the side effects and that the results are dependent on the treatment's mode of treatment and the patient's response.

Treatment of Leukemia by Stem Cell Transplant

This is an alternative treatment for chemotherapy, which has been proven to have several side effects. This is even though those drugs if administered in large doses, could kill the tumor cells completely. SCT is also known as transplant of the bone marrow, is a less costly option as far as side effects are concerned. There are various kinds of SCTs. The allogeneic stem cell transplant is the most common one where the cells are derived from a benefactor who is compatible with the patient. Donors are often close relatives or persons who are a match with the patient. The use of stem cells forms such a person commonly referred to as matched unrelated donors may lead to complications in the recovery of the patient. This type of transplant is crucial as it helps fight any tumor cells that may have remained as they are viewed as foreign by the new cells from the donor (Wang et al., 2013). However, it may lead to several side effects like the graft-versus-host disease, which ensues when the giver’s immune system attack that of the patient. Many older people can tolerate a SCT that uses large doses of chemotherapy drugs.

The autologous stem cell transplant on the other hand encompasses taking out the patient's stem cells and storing them after being frozen while the patient is undergoing treatment. The samples are separated from tumor cells by the process of purging. This transplant is more comfortable for the patient to tolerate than the other allogeneic stem cell transplant. The main problem with this type is that it is hard to treat the removed sample from tumor ones, and the leukemia cells may find their way back into the body.

References

Kantarjian, H., Stein, A., Gökbuget, N., Fielding, A. K., Schuh, A. C., Ribera, J. M., ... & Arslan, Ö. (2017). Blinatumomab versus chemotherapy for advanced acute lymphoblastic Leukemia. New England Journal of Medicine, 376(9), 836-847.

Wang, Y., Liu, D. H., Liu, K. Y., Xu, L. P., Zhang, X. H., Han, W., ... & Sun, Y. Q. (2013). Longterm followup of haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation without in vitro T cell depletion for the treatment of Leukemia: nine years of experience at a single center. Cancer, 119(5), 978-985.