The term leukemia refers to cancers of the white blood cells, which are also referred to as leukocytes or WBCs.

When a child has leukemia, large numbers of abnormal white blood cells are produced in the bone marrow. These abnormal white cells crowd the bone marrow and flood the bloodstream, but they cannot perform their proper role of protecting the body against disease because they are defective.

As leukemia progresses, the cancer interferes with the body's production of other types of blood cells, including red blood cells and platelets. This results in anemia (low numbers of red cells) and bleeding problems, in addition to the increased risk of infection caused by white cell abnormalities.

As a group, leukemias account for about 25% of all childhood cancers and affect about 2,200 American young people each year. Luckily, the chances for a cure are very good with leukemia. With treatment, most children with leukemia are free of the disease without it coming back.

Types of Leukemia in Children

Leukemia can be either fast growing (acute), or slower growing (chronic). Almost all leukemia in children is acute.

Acute leukemia is divided into 2 types:

• acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL, also called acute lymphoblastic leukemia)
• acute myelogenous leukemia (AML, also called acute myeloid leukemia)

(Chronic leukemia is also divided into 2 types but these forms of leukemia are very rare in children. They are not covered here.)

Lymphocytic and myelogenous (or myeloid) refer to the 2 different cell types from which leukemias start. Lymphocytic leukemias develop from lymphocytes in the bone marrow. Myelogenous leukemia develops from other types of blood cells.

Within these 2 broad groups there are even more sub-types. Special tests are done to help the doctor find out exactly what type of leukemia is present.

ALL (acute lymphocytic leukemia), as noted above, is a cancer of the lymphocyte-forming cells. ALL is divided into groups based on the cell type (B-cell or T-cell) and how the cells appear under the microscope.

About 85% of cases of ALL are of the B-cell type. And within this group, there are several subtypes as well.

The other 13% to 15% of ALL cases are of T-cell origin. This type of leukemia is more likely to affect boys than girls and to affect children at an older age.

AML (acute myelogenous leukemia) is a cancer of the bone marrow cells that form granulocytes, monocytes, red blood cells, or platelets. Like ALL, AML is also divided into several subtypes.

There is a rare type of leukemia that is neither chronic nor acute. It is called juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia. It begins from myeloid cells, but isn�t as fast growing as acute myelogenous leukemia or as slow as chronic myeloid leukemia. These children usually have a high white blood cell count and enlarged spleen

Some types of leukemia have features of both ALL and AML. These are called hybrid or mixed lineage leukemias. They are often treated like ALL and respond to treatment like ALL

 

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