This article is devoted to the consideration of one of the most serious diseases - leukemia. We will tell you why children suffer from leukemia, describe the features of various types of disease (acute lymphoblastic and myeloblastic, chronic leukemia), describe the earliest signs of the disease, giving the opportunity to notice the development of leukemia in the earliest stages.
Signs of leukemia in children
Leukemia (leukemia) develops gradually, the first symptoms appear on average 2 months after the onset of the disease. True, with sufficient care, it is possible to recognize the earliest, preclinical signs of leukemia, which manifest themselves in a change in the child's behavior. There are frequent complaints of fatigue and weakness, the child has lost interest in games, communication with peers and studies, the appetite disappears. Because of the weakening of the body during the initial period of leukemia, colds become more frequent, and the body temperature often rises. If parents pay due attention to these "trivial" symptoms and the child gives blood to laboratory tests, then physicians most often already then find some signs that do not indicate for certain the leukemia, but which make them alert and continue to observe.
Later the following symptoms appear:
- regular pain in the spine and legs (with a focus of pain periodically changes location). Often, such pain is mistaken for polyarthritis or the consequences of injuries;
- increased liver size;
- pallor of the skin;
- an increase in the size of the lymph nodes and pancreas;
- frequent bruising.
By the time the above symptoms appear, it is possible to diagnose leukemia by the results of a blood test. Blood tests show a reduced level of platelets, erythrocytes, a drop in hemoglobin level and a marked increase in ESR. The number of leukocytes in the blood in leukemia can be very different - from low to very high (all this depends on the number of blasts that got into the blood from the bone marrow). If laboratory tests of blood show the presence of blast bodies - this is a direct sign of acute leukemia (normal blast cells in the blood should not be).
To clarify the diagnosis, doctors appoint a bone marrow puncture, which allows you to determine the characteristics of blast cells of the bone marrow and to detect cellular pathologies. Without a puncture, it is impossible to determine the form of leukemia, to prescribe adequate treatment and to talk about any predictions for the patient.
Leukemia: causes of development in children
Leukemia is a systemic disease of blood and hemopoiesis. Initially, leukemia is a bone marrow tumor that develops in it. Later, tumor cells spread beyond the bone marrow, affecting not only the blood and the central nervous system, but also other organs of the human body. Leukemia is acute and chronic, while the forms of the disease differ not by the duration of the flow, but by the structure and composition of the tumor tissue.
In acute leukemia in children, the bone marrow is affected by immature blast cells. The difference between acute leukemia is that malignant formation consists of blast cells. In chronic leukemia in children, neoplasms consist of maturing and mature cells.
As already mentioned, leukemia is a systemic disease. Studies of leukemia tumor cells showed that most cells most often have a common gene. This means that they develop from one cell, in which there is a pathological mutation. Acute lymphoblastic and acute myeloblastic leukemia in children -
Peak by the number of cases of age sickness: 2-5 and 10-13 years. The disease is more common in boys than in girls.
To date, the exact causes of leukemia have not been established. Among the factors contributing to the onset of the disease, unfavorable environmental factors (including the effect of chemicals), oncogenic viruses (Burkitt's lymphoma virus), the effect of ionizing radiation, etc. are noted. All of them can lead to mutations of cells that are related to the hematopoietic system.