Chronic Myeloid Leukemia – difficult to cure but possible

Cancer is a condition that starts when cells in the body grow uncontrollably and can be in any part of the body. Cancer can begin in the lungs, colon, breast, and in blood. However, they are alike in some manners but are different in the ways it grows and spread. The cancer cells keep on growing and making new cells and crowd out healthy cells. Leukemia is a cancer type that starts  in the blood-forming cells of the bone marrow. Leukemia cells build up in the bone marrow and attack normal cells. And after that, leave the bone marrow and spill into the bloodstream, A leukemia is acute or chronic depending on whether most of the abnormal cells are immature or mature.

About Chronic myeloid leukemia

Chronic myeloid leukemia is also known as chronic myelogenous leukemia and is the type of cancer that begins in some blood-forming cells of bone marrow. When a patient has this condition, a genetic change takes place in the cells that make blood cells and most types of white blood cells and form an abnormal gene called BCR-ABL, which turns cells into leukemia cells that grow and divide themselves. These cells then build up in bone marrow and split over into blood. Chronic myeloid leukemia patients are mostly  adults, it is a rare condition  in children, too, and their treatment is the same as for adults. In chronic leukemia, the cells mature in parts  but not completely and may appear  fairly normal, but are not actually, Chronic leukemias do not   cause problems and can take a long time , and are difficult to cure in comparison to acute leukemias.

Symptoms of Chronic myelogenous leukemia

Chronic myeloid leukemia is also known as chronic granulocytic leukemia, and chronic myelogenous leukemia and typically affects older adults. However, the condition often doesn’t cause signs and symptoms, and may be detected during a blood test. When this condition occurs, there are some symptoms that you should keep in mind :

  • Feeling full while consuming small amount of food
  • Feeling run-down or tired
  • Bone pain
  • Easy bleeding
  • Fever
  • unintentional weight loss
  • anemia, due to a lack of red cells
  • pain or discomfort under the ribs on the left side
  • Excessive sweating during sleep at night

It is essential to see your doctor if you have any unusual symptoms or symptoms that persist much longer than expected as symptoms described above may also be seen in other illnesses too.

Causes and diagnosis of chronic myelogenous leukemia

A genetic mutation causes chronic myelogenous leukemia, and this genetic mutation is not passed on by parents. Due to the reason that Chronic myelogenous leukemia does not cause any symptoms, it can be detected during a routine blood test. If the test is positive, then a bone marrow biopsy is performed to get a sample of bone marrow to send to the lab for testing. During this process, a tube will be inserted into either the patient’s hip bone or breast bone, and a small piece is suctioned out for analysis. After the diagnosis test will be done to determine how the cancer is behaving, and it helps the doctor to know which treatment is best suited for you. Further on, doctors may do Imaging tests like ultrasound, MRI, and CT scan to know where cancer has spread.

Different stages of Chronic myelogenous leukemia

The condition has different stages of progression listed below for you. these stages help doctors to decide which treatment is best for you based number of blast cells present :

  1. The chronic stage

It is the early stage of cancer and might have some symptoms or none.

  1. The accelerated stage

At this stage, red blood cell count will be low, and anemia may occur.

  1. The blast crisis stage

At this stage, there will be a large number of blast cells present, and Symptoms will be more severe and can be life-threatening.

 

Chronic myeloid leukemia treatment cost in India starts from USD 22000, and the success rates is about 90 percent, and certain health and lifestyle factors can also influence survival rates. Chronic myeloid leukemia treatments can affect your appetite, and eating a balanced diet is important during the undergoing treatments.

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