What is Leukemia?

Leukemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow that is characterized by an abnormal increase of white blood cells.

Symptoms of Leukemia

Symptoms: flu like symptoms, fever, weight loss, infections, headaches, skin rash, bone pain, and easy bruising. Not everyone has the same symptoms.

Treatments for Leukemia

• Chemotherapy

• Radiation

Ten Facts about Leukemia

• There are different types of Leukemia.

• 256,000 children and adults develop some type of Leukemia each year.

• Leukemia damages the bone marrow.

• Leukemia prevents the immune system from working normally.

• Leukemia mainly occurs in young children from the ages of 2 to 8.

• The blood cells are very abnormal.

• Chemotherapy uses drugs to kill cancer cells.

• One type of Leukemia is acute: it grows slowly.

• Another type of Leukemia is chronic: it grows rapidly.

• Radiation treatments use high-energy rays to shrink the blood tumors.

What does it mean when a cell is cancerous?

When a cell is cancerous that means that a cell is reported to have been infected with cancer.

Why does cancer spread quickly?

Cancer can spread really fast because cancer cells don’t stop reproducing. They don’t stop until they have reproduced 50 to 60 times.

• www.kidshealth.org

• www.wikipedia.org

• www.medicmagic.net