All About Leukemia

Findings from two large, international clinical trials show unparalleled survival for patients with multiple myeloma, a blood cancer of the blood-making cells of the bone marrow.

The findings demonstrate that with Revlimid, an oral cancer drug, all measures of myeloma showed significant improvement in patients where previous treatments had failed.

Rush University Medical Center took part in the U.S. study, where a total of 353 patients were studied. According to the study results, patients who received Revlimid had a median survival of 29.6 months, compared to 20.2 months for the placebo group. In the Revlimid group, 61 percent of patients responded to therapy as compared with 19.9 percent in the placebo group.

Multiple myeloma is a cancer of the bone with increasing incidence among younger patients in the recent years. Up to this day, there is no known cure for multiple myeloma.

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Good news for those who need treatments for leukemia: new research reveals that Parthenolide, a compound present in the Feverfew plant, could kill leukemia stem cells without harming healthy blood cells. It was found out that after 18 hours, leukemia cells exposed to Parthenolide was destroyed. This is better than Cytaribine, a common drug used in chemotherapy, because Cytaribine is known to decrease blood cells within the bone marrow. Parthenolide may also make cancerous cells more sensitive to cancer-fighting agents so that destruction of these may be speeded up. With a little modification and testing, it would be an effective cure against this dreaded disease.

Ayurveda is an ancient Indian medical practice. The word Ayurveda comes from the two words Ayu meaning life and Veda meaning science. Ayurveda means science of life, and Ayurvedic medicine is a combination of physical, psychological and spiritual therapies. It makes use of the body’s ability to heal itself through alignment of the energy structure that makes the physical body live. It makes use of herbs that stimulate or ameliorate certain essences in the body like the air or nervous system, water or mucuous, and fire or energy. One of the diseases that Ayurveda claims to cure is Leukemia, or cancer of the blood that is believed in Ayurveda to be caused by improper digestion and distribution of essences.

Alternative treatments are called ‘alternative’ because it is outside of Western medical practice. These include herbal medicines, meditation, prayer, massage, chiropractic among others. These kinds of treatments are usually taken by patients who either have no faith or have lost hope in conventional treatments. These alternative treatments have the assumption that there is a connectedness between the body and nature and the power of the mind can heal the body’s illness. Techniques are used so that the patient will be healed through the forces of nature, alignment of the energy system of the body, and positive thinking. Though these methods aren’t proven to be truly effective, trying these are not a hindrance for those in need to restore their health.

In radiation therapy, rays are fired so that they burn disease tissue but it is done at various angles to avoid damaging healthy tissues. This can cure but also there are risks involved with radiation. Chemotherapy makes use of drugs to kill fast-growing cells such as cancer cells. However because there are a lot of other fast-growing cells in the body like immune system cells and hair cells, these will also be affected and the patient will suffer hair loss, infections and diseases. Surgery is cutting away the diseased part of the body, but if you cut the body part it won’t grow back and chances are, the disease will still spread. But let’s keep in mind that these treatments, though there are bad sides to it, can increase the chances of recovery.

Linings of the mouth and throat may also be injured, resulting to mucositis. This is caused by medications taken after bone marrow transplant. It is painful and patient may find it hard to eat and drink. This is treated with pain medications, and the patient is given intravenous infusion for a source of nutrients, and to avoid dehydration.

Graft-versus-host disease is the transplanted cell’s reaction to its new environment. Areas of the body that is commonly affected are the skin, liver and the digestive system. A benefit of this complication is the graft-versus-tumor effect, where the donor’s natural killer cells react against the cancer cells.

There are two methods of transplanting a healthy bone marrow to a patient: autologous and allogeneic.

Antalogous HSCT takes haematopoietic stem cells from the patient and is stored in a freezer. Then the patient undergoes chemotherapy to get rid of the patient’s cancer cells. Then the stored stem cells will be returned to the patient’s body. Advantages of this method include lower risk of graft rejection and occurrence of graft-versus-host-disease. Disadvantage include a higher probability of relapse.

Allogeneic HSCT takes healthy stem cells from a healthy donor and is transplanted to the patient. In this case, the donor must undergo several tests to see if his tissue type matches with the patient.

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The patient experiences a lot of pain and inconvenience during transplant and treatment. Aside from the physical pain, the emotional stress and fear of death consumes the patient’s strength. This is why patients and families are encouraged to join support groups to ease their anxiety.

The patient feels weak before, during and after the transplant. Imagine a severe case of flu like vomiting, nausea, fever, extreme weakness and diarrhea. The patient deals with these symptoms for several weeks during hospitalization. Complications after the operation may arise, and continuous medication is done. Eating and drinking becomes difficult, and the patient may experience temporary mental confusion.

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Pluripotent stem cells originate from totipotent cells and become part of the germ layer (tissues).

Multipotent stem cells produce different cell types belonging to the same “family”, like blood cells – hematopoietic stem cells differentiate to red and white blood cells and other blood-related cells.

Unipotent cells develop into only one cell type, and has the ability for self-renewal which make it unique from other non-stem cells. It is also known as progenitor cells

The bone marrow is composed of only 3% to 5% stem cells, but these are the only cells capable of producing the blood cells, and it produces enormous amounts of blood cells everyday – 2.5 billion erythrocytes, 2.5 billion platelets and 1 billion granulocytes per kilogram of body weight.

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Patients who undergo bone marrow transplant may experience complications, which are avoided with proper post-operation care and medications. Major complications include infection, veno-occlusive disease, mucositis, and graft-versus-host disease.

Patients undergo chemotherapy to destroy the patient’s existing white blood cells for a period prior to the operation. The patient loses his immune system’s ability to fight infections, even childhood diseases like measles and polio. Antibiotics and vaccines are given to the patient to fight off these infections.

Veno-occlusive disease (VOD) is a severe liver injury resulting from the narrowing of blood vessels leading to the liver. Anticoagulants may be given to the patient to improve blood flow, but increases the risk of bleeding.