What are the chances of Leukaemia coming back?
If you get leukaemia especially as a child there are very good cures and a very high chance that it will not return. The reasons it may return will be because the treatment (probably Chemotherapy) will have mutated some of your cells causing the cancer to return or another cancer to form.
How long can Leukaemia last?
Depends on the patient and the way they react to the treatment. If they react badly obviously it will take more time to heal and for the disease to go away. Children usually become better a lot quicker because they are always regenerating new cells replacing the other cells.
How long can you stay in hospital when you have Leukaemia?
It really depends on the patient, their health and where their mind is at. It also depends on where the family might live (if they live far away and they are still not 100% they might stay so they have good care) if the parents work (so they can have the good care but their parents can still work).
Who is Leukaemia most common in?
Leukaemia, as surprising as it is, is actually more common in men then it is in women with a 2009 rating of 57% of Leukaemia patients being men. Leukaemia is one of the top 15 most frequently occurring cancers in all races or ethnicities. Leukaemia incidence is highest among whites (12.8 per 100,000) and lowest among American Indians/Alaskan natives (7.0 per 100,000), Asian and Pacific Islander populations (7.3 per 100,000). Incidence rates by age differ for each of the leukaemias. From 2002 to 2006, leukaemia represented 27% of all cancers occurring among children younger than 20 years of age. It was estimated that in 2009, 3,509 children under the age of 15 were diagnosed with leukaemia throughout the United States.
Who is most likely to get Leukaemia?
No one knows the exact causes of leukaemia. Doctors can hardly ever explain why one person gets this disease and another does not. However, research has shown that people with certain risk factors are more likely than others to develop leukaemia. A risk factor is anything that increases a person's chance of developing a disease.
Studies have found the following risk factors for leukaemia:
•Very high levels of radiation. People exposed to very high levels of radiation are much more likely than others to develop leukaemia. Very high levels of radiation have been caused by atomic bomb explosions (such as those in Japan during World War II) and nuclear power plant accidents (such as the Chernobyl accident in 1986).
•Medical treatment that uses radiation can be another source of high-level exposure. Radiation used for diagnosis, however, exposes people too much lower levels of radiation are not linked to leukaemia.
•Working with certain chemicals. Exposure to high levels of benzene in the workplace can cause leukaemia. Benzene is used widely in the chemical industry. Formaldehyde is also used by the chemical industry. Workers exposed to formaldehyde also may be at greater risk of leukaemia.
•Chemotherapy. Cancer patients treated with certain cancer-fighting drugs sometimes later develop leukaemia. For example, drugs known as alkylating agents are associated with the development of leukaemia many years later.
•Down's syndrome and certain other genetic diseases. Some diseases caused by abnormal DNA may increase the risk of leukaemia.
•Human T-cell leukaemia virus-I (HTLV-I). This virus causes a rare type of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia known as human T-cell leukaemia. However, leukaemia does not appear to be contagious.
•Myelodysplastic syndrome. People with this blood disease are at increased risk of developing acute myeloid leukaemia.
In the past, some studies suggested contact to electromagnetic fields as another possible risk factor for leukaemia. Electromagnetic fields are a type of low-energy radiation that comes from power lines and electric appliances. However, results from recent studies show that the evidence is weak for electromagnetic fields as a risk factor.
Most people who have known risk factors do not get leukaemia. On the other hand, many who do get the disease have none of these risk factors. People who think they may be at risk of leukaemia should discuss this concern with their doctor. The doctor may suggest ways to reduce the risk and can plan an appropriate schedule for checkups.
