How is leukemia detected?
The first case of leukemia was reported by Dr. Velpeau in 1827.
In 1827, Dr. Velpeau first reported a “strange” case. The patient, a 63-year-old florist who had been drinking and overindulging, presented with fever, malaise, abdominal distention, and urinary stones and died shortly after admission; an autopsy ruled out syphilis, but found a markedly enlarged liver and spleen and thick, “white porridge”-like blood.
Since then, similar cases have been reported, and the German pathologist Virchow found a marked decrease in colored particles (erythrocytes) and a marked increase in colorless particles (leukocytes) in the patient’s blood samples, with morphological changes not related to sepsis.
Virchow first used the Greek word “leukemia” to describe this pathological change in 1847, and compared the colorless cells of the patient with the normal cell morphology remaining in the spleen and lymph glands, classifying leukemia into splenic and lymphatic types.
In 1868, Neumann, observing a case of splenic leukemia, first associated leukemia with bone marrow alterations, hypothesizing that this type of leukemia was “produced in the bone marrow. This view was later confirmed, and it became clear that leukemia is a class of malignant diseases that originate in the blood-forming organs.
What is leukemia?
What is leukemia?
What is leukemia?
Leukemia is a malignancy of the hematopoietic system that originates from hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells.
Bone marrow is the largest hematopoietic organ in the body. It is a spongy, gelatinous, or fatty tissue enclosed in a hard bone marrow cavity that can be separated by bone trabeculae. Bone marrow is divided into red and yellow marrow, which contains a large number of developing red blood cells and is very active in hematopoiesis. In adults, red blood cells, granulocytes, platelets and some lymphocytes are generated by the differentiation and development of hematopoietic stem cells in the red bone marrow. The number of red blood cells generated per day is about 10^11/Kg, granulocytes are about 1.6×10^9/Kg, and human B lymphocytes are also generated from the bone marrow.
Some pathogenic factors such as infection, radiation, and chemical agents alter the genetics of the cells, and malignancy occurs at the hematopoietic stem/progenitor cell stage, creating leukemic cells that have the ability to self-renew and proliferate as well as a survival advantage. Leukemic cells proliferate and accumulate uncontrollably in the body, gradually displacing normal hematopoiesis and invading other organs and systems, causing patients to develop anemia, bleeding, signs of infection and infiltration, and ultimately death.
Leukemia has been recognized as a disease for more than 100 years, and because little was known about the composition and origin of normal blood and its physiologic functions in the past, there were not yet good methods to detect and study it. Thus it has been discovered and understood as science and technology have gradually advanced. Even now, although there has been a great development in science and technology, there are still many questions to be further investigated regarding the etiology, pathogenesis, thorough treatment and prevention of leukemia.