Occurrence and frequency

The different types of blood cancers all have different age distributions and probabilities of occurrence. Acute lymphatic leukaemia (ALL): This form of blood cancer is rather rare; in Germany there are 1.5 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants every year. Acute lymphatic leukaemia occurs mainly in childhood, 90% of all childhood blood cancers are acute lymphatic leukaemias, this form is rare in adults.

Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML): The acute myeloid form of blood cancer occurs about twice as frequently as the acute lymphatic form (ALL). There are about 2.5 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants annually. Adults are mainly affected by this form; 80% of all leukaemias in adulthood are acutely myeloid, with the age peak at 60 years.

Chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML): The chronic myeloid form of blood cancer is also rather rare, although men are affected slightly more frequently than women. Every year, about 1-2 people per 100 000 inhabitants are newly diagnosed with CML. Chronic lymphatic leukemia (CLL): This form of blood cancer is the most common in the western hemisphere.

The average age of the disease is 60 years, only about 15% of the patients are younger than 55 years. Men fall ill twice as often as women. You can find more information here: Childhood leukemiaChildhood leukemia is the most common form of cancer, accounting for about 30%.

Acute lymphatic leukaemia is by far the most common in children. This is a malignant disease of the blood-forming system. AML is an acute disease.

This means that if no therapy is initiated, the tumour cells spread rapidly in the bone marrow and thus displace the healthy cells from the bone marrow. This leads to severe infections, bleeding and a significant reduction in general condition, often with fever and swelling of the lymph nodes. Untreated, the disease usually leads to death within a few months.

While AML was almost a certain death sentence a few decades ago, new forms of therapy now offer a significantly better chance of cure. Approximately 80% of children with the disease can be treated successfully. Leukaemia diseases are not inheritable in the true sense of the word.

However, there are still numerous things that have not been sufficiently researched. There are hereditary diseases that increase the risk of developing leukaemia, such as Down’s syndrome (trisomy 21). Also, leukaemias seem to occur more often in families in which malignant diseases are more common. In conclusion, this question cannot be answered according to the current state of science.

Therapy

The choice of therapy depends on the type of blood cancer. The most common form of therapy is polychemotherapy. Here, several cytostatic drugs are administered to the patient.

Cytostatic drugs are cytotoxics that inhibit the proliferation and growth of cancer cells. Cancer cells divide very frequently and are therefore particularly restricted by the drugs, but some healthy cells of the body also have a high division rate, which is then influenced by the drugs (e.g. mucosal cells). This is why chemotherapy can lead to side effects on healthy organs of the body with temporary damage.

Side effects of chemotherapy: In addition to chemotherapy, a bone marrow or stem cell transplantation can be performed in combination to replace the diseased bone marrow with healthy bone marrow. Similar to blood transfusion, a suitable bone marrow donor is needed for this. In recent years, therapeutic options have also found application with monoclonal antibodies and tyrosine kinase inhibitors (imatinib and dasatinib), which specifically intervene in the disease processes.

Therapy should only be carried out in clinics or centres specialising in this field. Complications: Blood cancer very strongly weakens the immune system, which can lead to complications in the course of the disease. Due to the weakened immune system, all leukaemia patients (regardless of the form of leukaemia) are very susceptible to infections.

The risk of blood clots (thromboses) or bleeding also increases, as blood cancer also affects the number of platelets that are responsible for blood clotting. For these reasons, patients with blood cancer must be closely monitored and, if possible, not be exposed to any sources of infection. – Nausea

Vomiting
General lassitude
Inflammation of mucous membranes
Hair Loss
Anemia

There are two different types of donations that are used to help patients with leukemia.

The bone marrow donation and the stem cell donation. While bone marrow donation is associated with a painful bone marrow puncture, stem cell donation requires only one type of long blood collection after the administration of a drug. Nowadays, stem cell donation is almost the only way to donate bone marrow.

A stem cell transplant can be done from one donor to one patient. However, in some cases, the patient himself can also be the stem cell donor. This is called autologous stem cell transplantation.

In the case of a foreign donation, the most important requirement is the so-called HLA compatibility. HLA molecules are certain tissue characteristics. The probability for a match of HLA characteristics is highest with 1st degree relatives.

For many patients, however, there is no family member who is eligible for donation. For this reason, donor databases have existed for several years in which people who are willing to donate stem cells can be registered. If one wants to become a donor, one can be typed.

This is done with a small blood sample or a cheek swab. If a match (HLA-compatible donor) is found, the potential donor is examined in detail once again before the donation. Among other things to prevent diseases from being transmitted from the donor to the recipient.

Donor and recipient do not get to know each other. However, the donor can inform himself about the recipient’s well-being a few weeks after the transplantation. In the course of the transplantation it is also possible to get to know each other personally if both parties so wish.