The “Luo Yixiao, you stand still” screen, today by the plot flip screen, not to talk about the disease outside the disturbance, we come to the science of childhood leukemia.
A. What is leukemia?
Leukemia, commonly known as “blood cancer”, is a malignant clonal disease originating from hematopoietic stem cells, abnormal leukemia cells “crazy growth” in the bone marrow and other hematopoietic tissues, and infiltration to the liver, spleen and other organs and tissues, normal hematopoiesis is inhibited. The normal blood production is suppressed. Clinical symptoms such as anemia, bleeding, and recurrent infections occur to varying degrees.
Leukemia is divided into acute leukemia and chronic leukemia, with acute leukemia being the most common, which can be subdivided into several subtypes depending on the maturity of the leukemic cells and the natural course of the disease. The treatment and prognosis of each type of leukemia differs.
Second, how far is leukemia from our children?
It is estimated that there are about 15,000 cases of leukemia in children under 15 years of age in China each year. Leukemia is the malignant tumor with the highest incidence in children, ranking first in the incidence of childhood tumors.
Is leukemia a “terminal disease”?
Without a bone marrow transplant, you are sure to die? In recent years, with the rise of the Internet, the news calling for bone marrow donations for children with leukemia has been spreading like wildfire from time to time, and in the midst of various non-medical opinion guides, people’s minds have formed improper perceptions about leukemia treatment. Most parents hear the name “leukemia” and think that a bone marrow transplant is necessary, and some parents even have to raise enough money for a bone marrow transplant before they go to the hospital, delaying their child’s treatment.
In fact, the current treatment of childhood leukemia is a combination of chemotherapy-based therapy, chemotherapy aims mainly to kill leukemia cells and relieve the symptoms caused by leukemia cell infiltration, so that the disease remission, or even cure, the entire course of treatment is mostly completed within 2 to 3 years.
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia accounts for about 80% of acute leukemia in children. For most children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, bone marrow transplantation is not the only way out, nor is it the preferred treatment option. Most children prefer standardized chemotherapy, and most have better results, with a five-year survival rate of 80%, and some patients can survive for a long time. Leukemia is divided into three categories: standard-risk, intermediate-risk and high-risk, according to professional diagnosis and assessment, and high-risk patients account for a minority of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Therefore, in case your child has leukemia, parents should not consider bone marrow transplantation as a life-saving measure on their own, but should seek medical advice as soon as possible.
It is important to emphasize that leukemia is a very specialized disease, and when leukemia is diagnosed or highly suspected in general pediatrics, it is important to go to a regular pediatric hematologist for professional examination and treatment plan. Standardized treatment of leukemia is very important, and it is important to follow medical advice, cooperate with treatment and follow up regularly during treatment.
Children with leukemia require more specialized tests, chemotherapy drugs, help with infections and bone marrow transplants, and close monitoring of the disease, so the cost is relatively high, with the first phase of treatment costing nearly $100,000. Some children are more critically ill, have severe infections, etc., and the medical costs can be even higher. However, the proportion of leukemia treatment costs covered by local medical insurance is relatively high. In June this year, Guangdong Province, “improve the implementation of urban and rural major medical insurance” draft for public comment pointed out that the province’s major medical reimbursement ratio of not less than 50%, the higher the medical costs, the higher the payment ratio.
How to detect leukemia at an early stage?
There is no method for early diagnosis.
Early symptoms of leukemia include: fever, fatigue, epistaxis, bleeding gums, excessive menstruation, joint pain, petechiae and petechiae on the skin and mucous membranes, and enlarged lymph nodes. Once the above-mentioned suspicious symptoms appear, routine blood tests need to be done, and those with abnormal blood count need to undergo bone marrow aspiration tests, etc. to confirm the diagnosis. If you are unfortunately diagnosed with leukemia, the earlier the standardized treatment, the better the results, so you should seek medical attention as soon as possible.
V. How to reduce the risk of leukemia?
The causes of leukemia are not yet very clear, and may be related to ionizing rays, chemical agents and drugs, viral infections, genetic factors, immune disorders and so on. We can only try to pay attention to avoid some risk factors.
1.Rational diet
We should eat more fresh vegetables and fruits, avoid high-fat and high-sugar foods, eat less fried and fatty foods, pickles and smoked fish and meat, and teach our children to stay away from “junk food”.
2.Avoid contact with special chemicals
Benzene, xylene, formaldehyde, heavy metals, herbicides, paints, etc. are associated with the development of leukemia, so be careful to avoid exposure. Decoration pollution is one of the culprits of childhood leukemia, new room decoration should be as simple as possible, try to use the panels containing less glue, after renovation should be strengthened ventilation, to decorate at least six months after moving in.
Hair dye contains a variety of harmful substances, it is important to remember that health is far more important than beauty. Fruits and vegetables must be washed repeatedly, try to wash the residual of various pesticides.
3.Reduce exposure to radiation
Workers engaged in radiation work and exposure to electromagnetic fields have a high incidence of leukemia, so the above-mentioned groups should pay special attention to strengthening personal protection. Infants and pregnant women are more sensitive to radiation and should pay attention to avoid prolonged exposure to radiation. To clarify, the radiation dose of conventional medical X-ray examination (commonly known as “film”) is small and basically does not affect the body.
We wish every child a healthy growth.
Finally, Dr. Zhang would like to say that in the future, when we encounter those who really need help, I hope we can still treat them with kindness, the world does have a lot of people in need of help, Luo Moumou incident millions of retweets can best reflect the love of the world!