【The Epoch Times May 27, 2022】Why do people getblood cancerWoolen cloth? This is the question that patients most often ask their doctors, as well as themselves.As soon as you hearleukemiaAlso known asblood cancer, you may feel that this is a kind of cancer with high complexity and sometimes rapid onset, ferocious and severe symptoms, but sometimes requires observation rather than immediate treatment. So what are the treatment methods for blood cancer, and what should we pay attention to in life? Health 1+1 invited three experts to analyze it for us.
ask:leukemiaWhat are the categories and what are their characteristics?
Answer: The classification of leukemia can be divided into acute and chronic. Acute leukemia usually has some symptoms, such as bleeding, infection, and very, very tired. These patients may be completely normal a month or two before. There is also a type of chronic leukemia, which lasts for a long time without any symptoms.
Q: Which type of leukemia is more dangerous?
Associate Professor Wu Jingjing: Generally speaking, acute leukemia has a relatively high risk, including acute granulocytic leukemia and acute lymphocytic leukemia. For adults, the most common acute blood cancer is granulocyte, and 80% of acute blood cancers are granulocytic blood cancers. Half of the acute leukemias we usually talk about in TV, movies, and literature refer to acute leukemia of granulocytes.
Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is perhaps the most dangerous type of leukemia, because these patients not only have a leukemia problem, but also lose the ability to clot blood resulting in a clotting disorder, and they will bleed for no apparent reason. Patients with this type of leukemia have only a 30 percent survival rate and a 30 percent early mortality rate, which occurs within a few weeks of treatment. But now there is a new drug that can treat 90% of patients.
Q: What causes leukemia?
A: A small part of it is due to genetic variation. For example, childhood blood cancer is generally caused by genetic variation. The biggest reason for adults is that they have been exposed to substances that are more harmful to our bodies. For example, after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in World War II, many nearby residents developed leukemia within a few years, some acute and some chronic. of.
Generally speaking, the white blood cells of the human body need to be metabolized after a period of time, but after the disease, because the white blood cells cannot be metabolized normally, the old cells are not removed, but the new cells grow back, so the Causes too many of these lymphocytes in the patient’s body. This is what causes this chronic lymphatic blood cancer.
Q: What are the usual symptoms of leukemia?
A: In acute cases, there are usually some symptoms of infection and bleeding, but chronic blood cancers are almost asymptomatic at the beginning, and may feel more tired than usual, or sometimes there may be some bruising or bleeding symptoms. For example, a tooth extraction will cause a bit of bleeding. Generally speaking, the bleeding will stop easily, but it will take a long time in patients with leukemia. In addition, there will be more frequent infections. For example, this patient will be more likely to catch a cold. Generally, people will recover in three to five days, but some patients will not recover in two weeks, so they need to see a doctor.
There are also some people who get this disease and get full after eating a little. For example, he usually eats one bowl of rice and two dishes. After this disease, he can only eat one bowl of rice, or he can only eat A bowl of rice and a dish. In this case there may be a possibility in this regard, which needs to be checked.
ask:chronic lymphocytic leukemiathe hair-raising crowd?
Answer: Chronic lymphocytic leukemia is generally a slightly older woman. Generally speaking, the incidence is about 65 to 70 years old. So far, we have not found any genetic signs.
Q: What should be checked and what checks should be done?
A: First, a very simple blood test can be done. If the total value of lymphocytes in human blood exceeds a certain range, there will be the possibility of chronic lymphocytic cancer, so ask your doctor if this value of lymphocytes is normal.
Second, if there is an infection, especially a viral infection, the lymph glands will become enlarged, but in patients with chronic lymphocytic cancer, the enlarged lymph glands will not be eliminated. So if you find that the lymph glands are a little swollen, if there is a little infection that has not been eliminated after the infection is cured, or if the patient does not have an infection but finds that the lymph glands are a little swollen, you need to ask the doctor if further examination is required.
Q: Does a patient with chronic lymphocytic leukemia have an enlarged spleen?
Answer: Generally speaking, lymphocytes are removed by the spleen. Because of the blood problems of chronic lymphocytes, the lymphocytes cannot be removed in time, so there are many lymphocytes in the spleen, and the spleen cannot bear such a problem. Too many lymphocytes can cause the spleen to enlarge.
Q: Why do some chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients need to be observed without treatment?
A: Many patients, although they have been diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, have no symptoms, and their total lymphocyte count is not very high. In this case, patients often do not need treatment, because early treatment cannot Helping our patients live longer has some side effects.
Roop Rai, MD, director of CLL leukemia research and treatment at the North Shore School of Medicine on Long Island, has done a study that randomly divided thousands of asymptomatic CLL patients into two categories. Half of the patients started treatment and the other half waited for observation. The study found that the treatment group and the wait-and-see group lived about the same time, although the quality of life of the patients in the treatment group decreased. This justifies keeping asymptomatic CLL patients on watch after diagnosis.
Q: What complications may occur in leukemia?
A: The most serious complication of leukemia patients is infection. After many leukemia patients are infected, they will not be able to recover for a long period of time, and even if they recover, they will soon be re-infected. Every time they are infected, the patient may be life-threatening.
In addition, if the patient will have some anemia or low platelet count, the patient will feel very tired and will bleed easily, which will have a certain impact on the patient’s life.
Q: What is the treatment for leukemia?
Answer: There are two types of acute leukemia, one is granulocytes and the other is lymphocytes. Generally speaking, lymphatic acute leukemia still needs chemotherapy as adjuvant treatment, and it takes a long time to treat, usually about two to three years. For acute myeloid leukemia, if the patient is healthy, the treatment will take about a week, and then after a month, it will recover a little, and then continue chemotherapy for a few months; if the patient is not so healthy, there are other diseases, or If you are a little older, there are also new drug-targeted treatments that do not require hospitalization, and the effect is quite good.
There are relatively many different treatments for chronic leukemia. 10 years ago, it could only be chemotherapy, but because of many side effects, it is basically eliminated now. The targeted therapy currently in use has very mild side effects and works well. There are now at least two oral targeted therapies, all of which are very effective, and can be used with just one drug or in combination with other intravenous drugs.
Q: How can patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia protect themselves under the new crown epidemic?
A: Under the new crown epidemic, the most important thing is to do a good job in self-protection, such as avoiding going to places with many people as much as possible, wearing a mask when going out, keeping a certain distance from other people, and washing your hands after returning home. The doctor ordered a new crown vaccine, or some drugs to prevent the new crown.
In addition, although leukemia itself cannot be prevented, patients can protect themselves as much as possible and reduce the chance of infection through vaccination, including pertussis, tetanus, influenza, hepatitis and cervical cancer in women.
Of course, sometimes even if we do our best protection, we may still get the new crown. Once a patient has been diagnosed with COVID-19, the most important thing is to contact the doctor. In this case, we generally do not recommend that the patient continue to receive leukemia treatment because it will reduce the patient’s immunity.
Q: Dietary advice?
A: Diet is very helpful for the recovery of leukemia. It is recommended that you eat more foods with slightly higher nutrition. First, foods with higher protein, such as beans with more plant protein, or lean meat with more animal protein. Second, eating a variety of vegetables of various colors, which contain a variety of vitamins and a lot of fiber, is very helpful to the overall physical condition of the patient.
In addition, take daily precautions to reduce the chance of infection, such as trying to avoid eating completely raw things, such as raw meat, or peeling the skin when eating fruit.
Expert Profile:
Associate Professor Jingjing Wu: Chief, Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Perlmutter Cancer Center, NYU Langone Health
Michael Andreeff, MD, Ph.D.: Professor of Medicine, Division of Cancer Medicine, Division of Leukemia, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Kanti Roop Rai, MD: Director of CLL Leukemia Research and Treatment, North Shore School of Medicine, Long Island
(For the full video, see:“Health 1+1 Which blood cancer (leukemia) is the most dangerous? Why do you get blood cancer? 》）
Responsible editor: Sun Cheng◇