Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia part-2
When a child is diaganosed with Leukemia
The first thing the doctors will want to do is investigate whether or not the cancer has spread.
To obtain that information they may consider the following tests.
- Chest X-ray
- Ultra Sound
- Spinal Tap
- Additional blood tests.
The next step is to determine at what stage the cancer is; however ALL has no established staging system.
Adults with ALL: are classified as “untreated,” “remission” or “recurrent”
Children with ALL: the following risk groups are used instead of stages.
Age: Infants and children under 10 years of age are placed in a high risk category.
White blood cell count: the higher the white blood cell counts the higher the risk.
Immunophendype: refers to where the cancer began, the B-cell of ALL or the T-Cell of ALL
- Children with B-Cell or T-cell. B-Cell is a lower risk and T-Cell a high risk.
- Cytogenetics refers to the changes in the chromosomes in the lymphocytes
Children with a particular kind of cancer that is hard to treat or who have sudden changes to their health, are also placed in a high risk category.
Treatments:
Children with ALL have an eighty percent cure rate when they undergo treatments. Some of the newer treatments have been known to increase the child cure rate to as high as ninety percent.
Adults with ALL have about a forty percent cure rate.
Knowing the risk rate helps the doctors to determine the type of treatment required.
ALL treatments fall into three stages:
- Induction therapy: This first stage will destroy most of the leukemia cells in both blood and bone marrow.
- Consolidation therapy: The second stage is a post –remission therapy and is aimed at destroying the remaining leukemia cells in the brain or spinal cord.
- Maintenance therapy: in this third stage of treatment a lower dose of medication is given and prevents leukemia cells from re-growing.
Children with ALL usually receive treatments to destroy leukemia cells in the central nervous system during each stage of the therapy.
This type of therapy is called:
- Central Nervous System Sanctuary Therapy or
- Central Nervous System Preventative Therapy
- Intrathecal chemotherapy – this type of chemotherapy is injected directly into the fluid that covers the spinal cord. This treatment kills cancer cells that cannot be reached by chemotherapy drugs given through an intravenous line.
The three stages of treatments above usually take from two to three and a half years to complete.
Chemotherapy is the main form of “Remission Treatment Induction Therapy” given to children and adults with ALL. Each session lasts for approximately four weeks or more. During the induction cycle treatments it is usual for the patient to remain in hospital, due to the chemotherapy destroying a number of the normal blood cells while in the process of killing the leukemia cells; since this is known to cause anemia, infections and bleeding.
Medications:
Children with low risk: usually receive the following three drugs during the first month of treatment - vincristine, L-asparaginase and a corticosteroid (prednisone or dexamethasone)
Children with high risk: may also in addition to the above receive an anthracycline drug such as daunorubici.
www.cancer.ca, www.cancer.org
Information provided in this article is for general knowledge only. I am not a medical expert. Neither Suite101 nor myself is liable for any errors or omission and any consequences thereof. Please check with your health care provider with any questions or health concerns.
