Leukemia is a type of cancer that is formed on the spinal marrow. It is sometimes refer to as the cancer of the blood. Stem cells are immature blood cells that can be found on the spinal marrow. These cells initially have a neutral state that develops later into a different type of blood cell; it can develop into a white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets. Leukemia affects the maturation of these stem cells that can lead to the accumulation of partially developed cells in the marrow, blood then eventually in other body organs. These cells become inefficient inside an organism and it cannot carry out the normal activity that a normal blood cell should be doing.
The disease can develop to two types of leukemia, an acute or chronic leukemia depending on the development of the cells if they are rapidly developing or slowly developing.
Acute leukemia is a type of leukemia which is the result of the stems cells that are unable to reach its cell maturity. The immature blood cells continuously grow in number as they rapidly divide and populate in the bloodstream. Acute leukemia is the rapid development of the stem cells that did not mature and those who have these needs to be treated immediately and has to undergo a special therapy to treat it. If treated incorrectly or just being ignored, acute leukemia can be the cause of death within a few months for the patient who has been suffering from it. Some forms of acute leukemia can be treated successfully with continuous treatment but other types of leukemia don’t respond to the treatment at all.
One type of chronic leukemia comes from mature cells that were abnormally developed. The cells of leukemia have a long period of life that can eventually populate in the bloodstream. Normal people usually have a count of 5000 to 10000 white blood cells. Patient who have been suffering from leukemia have more than 100000 white blood cells in their bloodstream.
Lymphocytic and myelogeneous leukemia are developed from many type of cells. Lymphocytic leukemia is from lymphoblast or lymphocyte which can be found in the tissue of the bones. Myelocytic leukemia is developed from myeloid cells. The main types of leukemia are acute myelogenous leukemia, chronic myelogenous leukemia, acute lymphocytic leukemia and chronic lymphocytic leukemia which can depend on the cells that are involved and the development of the cells as well as its cell division and growth.
There are also other types of leukemia that are very rare. Hairy cell leukemia is another type of chronic leukemia which grows and developed very slow. It doesn’t respond to any treatment at all. Prolymphocytic leukemia is another rare form of chronic leukemia.
Lymphoma is another cancer caused by an abnormal blood cell that can be found on the lymph nodes, spleen, liver and other organs. This type of cancer doesn’t occur on the bone marrow and it has a different characteristic from the common lymphocytic leukemia.