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Leukemia
Microscopic image of infected blood | Leukemia is a devastating disease. Until recently, the treatment options could be as devastating as the diagnosis itself. But due to innovative research underway in the scientific community, treatments are becoming easier to tolerate and more effective. As a result, survival rates and quality of life have greatly improved for those diagnosed with this disease.
What is Leukemia?
Leukemia is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. This cancer causes the formation of tissues with millions of abnormal white blood cells, which crowd out normal cells. The result leaves the body weakened, unable to fight infections.
Leukemia is either acute (spreads rapidly) or chronic (gets worse gradually). It affects two different types of blood cells: lymphoid or myeloid. The four major types of Leukemia are: Acute Lymphocytic, Chronic Lymphocytic, Acute Myelogenous, and Chronic Myelogenous. Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) is the most common form, with 10,600 new cases each year.1
What are the risk factors?
Although in most cases it is not known what causes leukemia, it is believed that several risk factors may play a role. Excessive exposure to very high levels of radiation; for example, the type of radiation produced by atomic bomb explosions or nuclear power plant accidents, may be a risk factor. Also, working with certain chemicals, such as benzene and formaldehyde, is suspected to be a contributing factor.
What are the warning signs?
The early warning signs of leukemia include paleness, fatigue, weight loss, a tendency to bruise easily, repeated infections, and heavy or uncontrolled bleeding, such as nosebleeds. Any of these symptoms can appear suddenly in acute leukemia. Normally, a person with acute leukemia will feel sick due to these symptoms and see their doctor. The progress of chronic leukemia can be slow and produce no symptoms for years. Chronic leukemia is often detected by a doctor during a routine checkup, before the patient is aware of any symptoms.
Leukemia affects people of all ages
This year more than 33,000 people in the United States will be diagnosed with leukemia, and an estimated 23,000 people will die of the disease.2 Although most cases occur in adults over the age of 67, leukemia does not discriminate between the young and the old.3 It is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths among children and young adults under the age of 20.4
Traditional treatments
Until recently, the only treatment options available for leukemia patients were invasive bone marrow transplants, debilitating radiation, chemotherapy, or a combination of all three. These therapies work in very different ways, but share a common goal of eliminating or achieving remission of leukemia cells and restoring normal blood cell production.
New drugs offer new hope
The five-year survival rate for patients suffering from leukemia has more than tripled in the past 40 years. In the 1960s, a patient with leukemia had a 14% chance of living five years. By 1995-2000, the overall relative survival rate had increased to 46%.5
In the past decade, several important new drugs have been developed, and new uses have been discovered for existing drugs. These drugs have greatly improved cure rates and remission periods for patients with leukemia. Many are more effective and better tolerated than older treatments and have fewer adverse effects on normal tissues.
Two examples of the drugs used today to treat leukemia are arsenic trioxide and all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA). These treatments kill leukemia cells, stop the leukemia cells from dividing, or help the leukemia cells mature into normal white blood cells. Gene-based therapies, such as Gleevec®, represent a major advance in treating leukemia. When Gleevec® was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2001 for certain patients with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia, Dr. Harmon Eyre of the American Cancer Society called it, "a huge breakthrough... a great drug, a great new discovery." Researchers are also developing immunotherapies and vaccines, where the body's immune cells and/or antibodies are used to fight the disease.
We invite you to explore innovation.org to learn more about this disease, new medicines in development to treat it, and to read the real-life stories of patients battling with cancer and other diseases.
Patient Stories
New Medicines Database
Patient Assistance Programs
1National Cancer Institute (NCI) website: www.cancer.gov. Accessed 1 April, 2005.
2The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society website: http://www.leukemia-lymphoma.org/all_page?item_id=9346. Accessed 1 April, 2005.
3The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society website: http://www.leukemia-lymphoma.org. Accessed 1 April, 2005.
4National Cancer Institute (NCI) website: seer.cancer.gov. Accessed 1 April, 2005.
5The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society website: www.leukemia-lymphoma.org. Accessed 1 April, 2005.
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