Case Study 6 Essay

Of course, these are not just symptoms of ALL and are more often caused by something other than leukemia. (p. 1)

Leukemia is cancerous disease that starts in blood-forming tissue such as the bone marrow and causes large numbers of blood cells to be produced and enter the blood-stream (National Cancer Institute, 2008, para. 1). It is one of many complicated cancer diseases that affect all ages and have very negative outcomes if not treated properly, and on time. Within the disease are several different types that affect according to how quickly the disease develops and attacks the body. It could be classified as chronic leukemia, which has a slow progress of getting worse or acute leukemia which usually gets worse quickly. The types of leukemia also can be grouped based on the white blood cell that is affected (National Cancer Institute , 2008, p. 1).

DK is a 51-year old male patient presenting with Acute Myeloid Leukemia AML. Two weeks ago while vacationing in Ocean City with his family, DK visited the local hospital with the symptoms of swollen leg, difficulty walking, pain, and fever. Bloodwork was performed at the local clinic and revealed anemia and low cell counts indicating possible leukemia. Patient returned to Baltimore and was admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital 1 week ago. His current symptoms are swelling of lower legs, fever, low blood Oxygen level, anemia.

Bob was presented in the emergency one day with anemia and thrombocytopenia. Bob had several admissions over a two-month period for various reasons. On the last admission Bob and his parents were told that he may only have 4–6 weeks to live. Bob’s parents insisted on continuing chemotherapy for Bob in the hopes that he would be cured.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is reported to be 75% of childhood leukemia. It is mostly occurs before age of 5 and to mostly boys. However this disease can occur to anyone throughout any point in their life. For adults it is most likely to occur to adults over the age of 50 years old. Throughout my research I discovered that children have a better odds of beating the cancer than adults would. Caucasian and Hispanic children are known to having a higher risk of being diagnosed with this disease. Each year, around 3,500 American children and adults are diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

They are often vague by the influenza or other common diseases. They are including fever, shortness of breath, excessive bleeding, Petechiae, weakness, tiredness, loss of appetite, and loss of weight. If not treated, overtime, AML can be more distinctive with signs of enlargement of the spleen, swelling of the gums because of infiltration of leukemic cells into the gum tissue, and. Tumor or mass outside the bone marrow is rarely seen in AML due to its rapid, abrupt onset that the disease are often detected through routine blood check.

The age-adjusted incidence of acute myeloid leukemia is 3.6 per 100000 persons per year, with a median age of 66 years at diagnosis. Whereas the outcome for patients with AML who are less than 60 years of age has improved over the past several decades, the major reasons for failure are primary refractoriness of the disease to initial chemotherapy or failure to maintain the complete state of remission.. Some patients have residual leukemic cells in their marrow even after intensive treatment. This is referred to as “refractory leukemia.” There are other patients who have a return of leukemia cells in the marrow and a decrease in normal blood cells after achieving a remission. This is referred to as “relapsed leukemia.” (Leukemia and Lymphoma Society 2011)

The symptoms of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia usually begin slowly before rapidly getting severe as the number of blast cells in the blood increase. Most of the symptoms are caused by the lack healthy blood cells in the blood supply. Symptoms of this disease include: pale skin, feeling tired and/or breathless, having repeated infections over a short period of time, unusual and frequent bleeding, such as nosebleeds and bleeding gums, high temperatures, night sweats, bone and joint pain, easily bruised skin, swollen lymph nodes, abdominal pain caused by a swollen liver or spleen, unexplained weight loss, and a purple skin rash or also known as a purpura. The symptoms could relate to a different illness or maybe just a common cold. Although they are quite common, they could be a path to an extremely cruel

Leukemia is a type of cancer where your bone marrow, which produces blood cells, produces abnormal white blood cells. These abnormal cells have a longer life span than normal cells, which die in a cycle. Since they interfere with the cycle, they begin taking up more space, leaving little room for the normal cells to live.

When a parent takes their child to the doctor the last thing they want to hear is that their child has cancer. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for a child to be diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, also known as ALL. Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia is one of the most common forms of childhood cancer, and “makes up approximately 25% of cancer diagnoses among children under 15 years old” (3). Children under five years of age are at the most risk of developing ALL. Since it is an acute form of cancer once the onset has begun the disease quickly begins to worsen, therefore patients must seek treatment as soon as possible. “ALL is different than other diseases in that it is not just a single disease but also rather a group of related diseases with different subtypes”(1). This uniqueness causes the treatment of ALL to depend on the subtypes the patient has, therefore each

Patients may undergo a series of treatment such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and stem cell transplant. If patients symptoms disappear therapy may still be needed to prevent relapse (Bernard & Tia, 2011). Children who have this disease undergo different regimens than any adult would (University of Maryland Medical Center, 2013). The risk factors that are most often associated with leukemia are not well understood. High level of exposure to medical radiation treatments is on major side effects to the treatment of leukemia. However this treatment may cause side effects to patients but controls the

Chemotherapy, Radiation therapy, stem cell transplant, and targeted drug therapy are all forms of treatment for ALL. Chemotherapy is typically used as induction therapy for kids and adults. Chemotherapy can also be used in consolidation and maintenance therapies. Chemotherapy is given in a variety of ways. It can be given orally as a pill or liquid. It can be given intravenously by infusion into a vein. A cream on the skin can be given. Chemotherapy can also be given by direct placement either via lumbar puncture or a device placed just under the scalp. Radiation therapy uses high-powered beams, such as x-rays, to kill the cancer cells. Radiation therapy is usually recommended when the cancer has spread to the central nervous

Leukemia is a cancer that attacks a persons’ blood. This is where the patients’ white blood cells grow abnormally and mutate, blocking the growth of normal blood cells. Leukemia can cause bruising that seems to come from nowhere and a person cannot remember where they got them from. White blood cells are very important to immunity so having this cancer can highly decrease someone’s immunity to anything from the common cold to a viral infection. If Leukemia is not caught in time, like all cancers, it can be deadly.

There are two types of leukemia in children; acute and chronic. Acute is fast growing leukemia. Within acute leukemia are three categories: acute lymphocytic (lymphoblastic) leukemia (ALL), acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), and hybrid or mixed lineage leukemia. Acute lymphocytic (lymphoblastic) leukemia (ALL) is the most common type of childhood leukemia and develop from early forms of lymphocytes, also known as white blood cells. Specifically, three out of four childhood leukemias are ALL (About Childhood Leukemia). Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) starts from the myeloid cells that create blood forming cells such as white blood cells (except for lymphocytes), red blood cells, and platelets (About Childhood Leukemia). Hybrid or mixed lineage leukemia are rare forms of childhood leukemia, but can be treated like ALL and AML. On the other end of the spectrum is chronic, or slow growing, leukemia. Chronic leukemia is difficult to treat and are more commonly found in adults than children. There are two types of chronic leukemia: chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) is not commonly

The definition of acute leukemia arising from an antecedent MPN follows standard WHO convention for the diagnosis of acute leukemia. The presence of greater than or equal to 20% blasts in the peripheral blood or bone marrow fulfills this definition. Notably, a discrepancy between bone marrow and peripheral blood blasts is frequently observed in patients with preceding MPN. In many cases this is due to fibrosis of the marrow which renders a bone marrow aspirate unobtainable. As well, it has been postulated that areas of extramedullary hematopoiesis contribute to leukemogensis which may lead to further differences between blast counts observed in the bone marrow and peripheral blood (1). Notably, the International Working Group for Myelofibrosis Research and Treatment (IWG-MRT) has proposed nomenclature for patients with post-ET MF, post-PV MF and PMF