Cancer+Podcast+CC

Don't worry, this will only be a quick break from your favorite radio station, 95.5 WKDF.media type="file" key="leukemia.m4a" My name is Caroline Cooke and I am here to inform you of Leukemia. Leukemia is cancer of the blood or bone marrow. Since 1998, it is estimated that each year about 30,800 individuals be diagnosed with leukemia in the United States and 21,700 will die from it. The term Leukemia is actually a broad term for a spectrum of blood and bone marrow diseases. For example, there is acute leukemia and chronic leukemia. Acute Leukemia is when there is a rapid increase of immature blood cells. The crowding of the blood cells causes the bone marrow to be unable to produce healthy blood cells. This kind of leukemia is common in children and young adults. Acute leukemia is treated immediately.

Chronic leukemia is caused by mostly mature blood cells which are still somehow abnormal building up. This takes much longer to happen, but the cells produce much more than normal, and this results in having an abnormally large amount of white blood cells. Chronic leukemia occurs more in older people. This kind of leukemia is often monitored before treated.

There are also two different kinds of leukemia that deal with different kinds of blood cells. One is called lymphocytic leukemia and the other is non-lymphocytic leukemia. Some symptoms of leukemia are getting bruises often, bleeding excessively, or developing pinprick bleeds. Also, the immune system could be unable to fight off a simple cold.

Common treatment for Leukemia includes chemotherapy, consolidation therapy, blood transfusions, along with other kinds of treatments which I can't pronounce.

There is no single known cause for leukemia. Some possible causes could be due to certain chemicals one has been exposed to, radiation, some viruses, or genetics. All cancers are due to a mutation in DNA, causing oncogenes to disrupt apoptosis, or the regulation of cell death and a lack of normal cell division. At this point there is no way to prevent the disease because we are not sure what causes it. Thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.