Blood cancer
Leukemia or blood cancer is a chronic disease that can develop over many years without showing obvious symptoms
The immune system is responsible for protecting the body against agents that may cause damage.
Therefore, in the blood are white blood cells that although they live only a few hours, renewing all the time in the bone marrow that is located within a few bones and is responsible for producing them.
But when the space that occurs in bone marrow is invaded by malignant or atypical cells that grow in an unlimited, can not function normally and develop a cancer called leukemia.
This means that the leukemia or blood cancer occurs in the bone marrow because there are other cells that invade and do not allow to manufacture white blood cells. Leukemia is the term that describes the various types of cancer affecting the blood.
This disease in Mexico is the leading cause of cancer deaths in children, affects children and in recent years has greatly increased among adults.
Its name comes from Greek and means “white blood”, because the blood of people with this disease poses a white or pale pink, due to the high number of abnormal white blood cells that are the causes of cancer.
Leukemia affects all blood cells and bone marrow, but mainly the white blood cells and is characterized by an arrest in the maturation of the cells responsible for the formation of blood components at the same time that occur immature blood cells unchecked.
This proliferation of malignant cells originate in the bone marrow, responsible for distributing the blood to different body tissues.
Although the cause or causes are not known accurately, it is known that there are several predisposing factors such as genetic, immune, environmental factors and viruses.
Among the factors identified as triggers of leukemia is exposure to ionizing radiation, exposure to benzene, pesticides, or tar and the use of some cancer drugs and other medicines. Also, some genetic disorders such as Down syndrome, increases the risk.
A few decades ago this disease was fatal in a very high percentage, but scientific studies have enabled the development schemes more effective treatment, helping mortality rates have declined significantly.
IMPORTANT The contents of this note is informative and does not replace the medical diagnosis, so we are not responsible for their use.