All About Leukemia

The most common type of leukemia that occurs in infants is Acute Lymphoid Leukemia or ALL. It is a disease of the bone marrow, where the diseased blood cells take the place of normal bone marrow. Eighty percent of children with leukemia have ALL. Common symptoms are persistent fevers, frequent infections, weakness, joint and bone pain, paleness and bleeding. The cause of ALL is still unknown, but it has been shown that there are changes chromosomes of malignant cells.

In the past, infants underwent prolonged therapy, up to two and a half years, but 60 to 80 percent had relapsed after treatment. Pediatric oncologist since then changed the approach to a more intensified therapy at a short period of 46 weeks. With this approach, patients no longer had relapses after 6 to 9 months after treatment, and most of the cured patients did not show long term side effects.

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