leukemia1 essays

leukemia1 essays According to the Cancer Book from the American Cancer Society, Leukemia is a cancer of the blood. It was first identified as a new disease in around 1830 in Germany. The scientific term, "leukemia," comes from the Greek words that mean "white blood." The disease is described as a cancerous disorder not just of the blood itself, but also of the organs that produce the blood cells in the body. The organs are mainly the bone marrow and the lymph system, where normal red and white cells, lymph cells, and platelets grow before entering the bloodstream. Normal cells usually go through the same process but with differences in rate, number, and function ability. With the disease, the bone marrow will not be able to produce the sufficient levels of red blood cells and platelets, while the white blood cells will produce so rapidly that the cells will not become mature enough to fight off infections. As the disease progresses, the whole blood system will become useless due to the vast a mount of immature cells produced. If a person with the disease is not treated, there will be excessive bleeding and infections until the body reaches the point where it becomes defenseless. The body will make minor injury or infection very serious. Leukemia itself does not always kill people. Instead, people die from infections such as small virus or bacteria because there are not enough normal white blood cells in the body. Also, people could die form internal bleeding, which could have been prevented by the platelets. Leukemia appears more commonly in adults then children. A survey in 1989 stated that approximately 25,000 new cases of the disease are diagnosed annually in the United States, 22,500 of them are adults and only 2,500 are children. It also shows that men are affected by leukemia 30 percent more frequently than women. Ten years ago, about 17,000 people die from the disease each year. Many of the advanced industrial nations have in...