Discovering leukemia while it is still in an early phase is crucial in its treatment because when the disease advances it starts to spread in the whole body and it's much harder to be treated.Therefore it's important to learn the symptoms of leukemia so that you can can detect its signs and take the appropriate measures. Symptoms however may vary from one person to another and they also depend on what type of leukemia the patient has. Leukemia can be divided into two major types: acute leukemia and chronic leukemia, each having its specific symptoms.
Leukemia symptoms result from the fact that the blood cells of someone suffering from leukemia are diseased and they can't fulfill their role anymore.
Patients with acute leukemia have too little red blood cells in their bodies which leads to a general feeling of weakness and to a pale color.
On the other hand, a person with too many abnormal white blood cells can develop fever, is very easily bruised, will suddenly start bleeding out his/her nose or gums and sometimes they will feel pain in the joints.
Other common symptoms of leukemia are pain in the abdomen, swollen lymph nodes, weight loss, sweating, and if the disease spreads to the brain headaches, disorientation, balance problems and confusion appears.
Acute leukemia develops much faster that chronic leukemia, but it's easier to be discovered because people come at the doctor because they feel sick. Chronic leukemia develops much slower but it's harder to detect it because very often it shows no specific symptoms and it's discovered when it has already advanced a lot. Always feeling weakend and getting infections often can be a sign so visit your doctor for an accurate diagnosis.
If someone reports a few of these symptoms to the doctor then some special tests must be performed to determine whether the person has leukemia or not and if he/she has it then some other tests need to be done to determine what kind of treatment gives the best results.
The lymph and blood marrow must be examined and blood samples must also be processed in order to establish an accurate diagnosis. Once the leukemia diagnose is established chemotherapy usually begins. The survival rate gets higher and higher each year.
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