Leukemia in children
With about 700 new cases per year, leukemia is the most frequent cancer disease among children and adolescents. The majority of children suffer from acute lymphatic leukemia, ALL for short. In the vast majority of cases, the cause of childhood leukemia cannot be determined.
However, genetic changes and individual environmental influences, such as increased radiation exposure, increase the risk of the disease. Children with Down’s syndrome are also significantly more likely to develop a certain form of leukemia (AML). The leukemia originates in the blood-forming cells of the bone marrow.
Normally, our various blood cells mature there in complicated processes. In leukemia, individual precursor cells “degenerate”. As a result, they produce uncontrolled large quantities of functionless leukemia cells (blasts).
Increasingly, healthy blood cells are then displaced and the blood cancer cells infiltrate various organs. Similar to adults, the first symptoms in children are rather unspecific. Affected children are limp, tired and often listless.
Smaller patients no longer want to play and sometimes behave very affectionately. Often the parents notice a strong paleness of their child, as well as an accumulation of bruises or spotty skin bleeding. Occasionally strong nosebleeds can be observed.
Since the leukemia cells displace the cells of the immune system (white blood cells), the children suffer from frequent infections. If leukemia is suspected, a bone marrow sample is taken in specialized departments of pediatric clinics (pediatric oncology/hematology). There the leukemia cells can be visualized directly under the microscope.
In addition to bone marrow puncture, other examinations such as blood collection, ultrasound or lumbar puncture (brain water examination) also play an important role. Since acute leukemia is also very aggressive in children, therapy should begin as soon as possible.In order to destroy as many leukemia cells as possible, a therapy combination of different chemotherapeutic agents is used. The strong and aggressive therapy brings numerous side effects (nausea, hair loss, vomiting, tendency to infections).
In special cases, bone marrow transplantation can increase the chances of recovery. Occasionally, radiation therapy is used. Fortunately, the chances of a cure for childhood leukemia have greatly improved in recent decades. For example, the 5-year survival rate of the common ALL is between 80 and 90%.
