By Dave Morrison
Myeloid leukemia is a group of diseases whose characteristic changes are seen in the bone marrow and blood, where tumor cells infiltrate the blood system; sometimes these cells even spill into the circulating blood other tissues. The concept of myeloid leukemia is from the action of immature white blood cells being produced in excess and therefore inhibiting the production of the normal blood cells. These cells are called myeloid cells; they by their action in the blood disturb the function of the blood cells.
This leukemia has both tumors which are kept untreated to those that are diagnosed and treated immediately, ranging from rapid fatality to those which are slow in growing. Therefore on the basis of their treatment course they are divided into acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and chronic myeloid leukemia (CML).
AML is seen more in men than in women and more prevalent in people older than 65 than in people of younger age. CML is also greater in men than in women but its incidence always increase slowing and the people’s age increases and gets to the peak of occurrence in mid forties from where there is rapid rise in CML occurrence. Anyway the incidence of CML decreased slightly in the past two decades.
The etiology of myeloid leukemia is depended on the type, AML is related with risk factors such as hereditary (other resident blood disease in the family history; DIC) exposure to occupational chemicals, intense exposure to radiation which may be as a result of therapeutic reasons and even some drugs, but there is nothing relating the cause of ML to viral infection in any way.
While the etiology of chronic myeloid leukemia has no distinct relation with cytotoxic drug effect and there is also no evidence connecting it with any viral infection, but cigarette smoking by studies has shown to increase its progress into severe crisis, therefore living with Chronic myeloid leukemia and smoking becomes dangerous. Only large dosage of radiation has any adverse effect for CML formation.
The symptoms of ML are also depending on the type, whether it is AML or CML. For AML patients are presented with some nonspecific symptoms which begin either slowly or abruptly and the symptoms are leucopenia or leucocytosis, thrombocytopenia. These symptoms are usually due to anemia in such patients. Other symptoms of are fatigue, anorexia and weight loss and easily getting bruised with excessive bleeding.
While in CML the symptoms are at first insidious therefore it is difficult to diagnose a patient based but symptoms, such patients are usually diagnosed during normal medical checkup, or others come to the hospital with complaints fatigue, weight loss, symptoms relating to splenomegaly such as early satisfaction during eating, left upper quadrant pain, infections, thrombosis or sometimes bleeding.
When chronic myeloid leukemia progresses symptoms worsened with bone and joint pain, significant loss of weight which will require increasing the dose of the drugs used for treatment. Chemotherapy is used as treatment of myeloid leukemia but when this fails bone transplant is done.