Acute vs Chronic Leukemia

Leukemia is often classified by the speed of development in the body.

In acute leukemia, the mutated blood cells are rapidly dividing, which means that the disease progresses quickly. If you suffer from this version, you will feel sick within mere which of the leukemia cells forming. It is the most abundant among children who suffer from the disease.

Chronic leukemia most often presents itself with leukemia cell that has features of both maturity and immaturity. A few of the cells do not carry out normal function but not to the extent that their healthy counterparts do. This variant features a not-so-fast disease progression, and symptoms won’t necessarily appear until years after. Chronic leukemia is more prevalent in adults than in children who suffer from the disease.

Signs and symptoms

The signs and symptoms vary depending on what type of leukemia you have.

Leukemia does not always present symptoms in the stages of the diseases. When it does, the initial symptoms closely mimic those that indicate the flu, but unlike flu symptoms, they do not go leave or away after a few weeks.

Early symptoms usually include the following:

· Night sweats

· Loss of appetite

· Headaches

· Fever

· Easy bruising and bleeding. (This also results in nosebleeds and bleeding gums, purplish patches in the skin, as well as tiny red spots in the skin called petechiae.)

· Fatigue

· Joint pain and/or tenderness

· Bone pain

· Heavy bleeding

· Shortness of breath

· Frequent infections

· Swollen lymph nodes found in the underarm, neck, stomach, or groin. This can also result in a swollen spleen or liver.

· Unregulated and unplanned weight loss

· Painful or full feeling under the ribs on the left side

· Pale skin tone.

However, if you suffer from leukemia’s chronic variant, you may not pick up any noticeable symptoms in the cancer’s early stages. Despite this, specific symptoms indicate whether you suffer from an acute version or chronic form of leukemia.

Symptoms that indicate chronic leukemia include:

· Anemia

· Easily bleeding bleeding or bruising

· Quickly becoming tired or a general sense of weakness

· Enlarged lymph nodes, these are but not painful when touched.

· Weight loss

· Fever

· Night sweats

· A full feeling or discomfort in the area of the spleen is in the upper section of the abdomen on your left side.

For leukemia that is acute, the signs and symptoms can comprise of:

· Low-grade fever

· Infections that do not go away.

· Aches in the joints

· Night sweats

· Pallid skin

· Aches in the bones

· A general sense of tiredness or weakness that does not get better with sleep or relaxation.

· Small, red looking dots that form beneath the skin

· Cuts that are taking longer than normal to heal.

Treatment

As with all facets of cancer, treatment is based on the kind of leukemia you suffer from, your overall health, age, and if the cancer is affecting other organs and tissues. This treatment usually takes form in one or combined form of five treatment categories.

· Chemotherapy: In this most usual therapy, treatment is administered using medication in pill form and through an IV into a vein or central line or through shots under the skin. The chemicals work to kill the mutated leukemia cells or to stop them from multiplying. A combination of chemotherapy drugs is used in tandem. It usually spans in cycles of a certain amount of treatment days and rest days for lengths of time that range from six months to indefinite treatment, in regards to the severity of cancer.

· Immunotherapy: In this, drugs are used to boost your body’s immune system so it can attempt to fight the cancerous cells on its own.

· Radiation therapy: Strong rays of energy are used to kill the cells or stop them from reaching maturity. These are directed to body-specific locations where the cancer cells have amassed or over your entire body as a part of cell transplant.

· Targeted therapy: Targeted therapy uses drugs that target specific features of the leukemia cells. It blocks the cells’ ability to multiply and divide, cuts off the blood supply needed for cell life, or kills them directly. This treatment is one of the least harmful therapies available to treat leukemia.

It is best to visit your doctor for a consultation if you believe you or someone else is experiencing leukemia symptoms. As always, early detection is best.

This article represents the opinions, thoughts, and experiences of the author. This content has not been paid for by any advertiser nor does Answer.Expert recommend or endorse any products or treatments discussed herein. This article is provided for informational purposes only. Answer.Expert does not provide professional advice of any kind. You should seek guidance from your medical, financial, legal, or other professional representative with any questions you many have about your personal situation.