Recently, we have seen many leukemia patients or family members who are diagnosed with the disease, due to the sudden huge blow, often do not know how to deal with it at once, and even appear to be in a hurry to seek medical help. Leukemia is a malignant tumor of the hematopoietic system, characterized by excessive production of leukemia cells in the bone marrow and invasion of every organ of the body with blood flow, such as the brain, lungs, liver, spleen, kidneys, testes, ovaries, etc., so that the function of each organ is impaired and pathological changes occur, with different clinical manifestations, such as enlarged liver and spleen, etc. In patients with this disease, there are a large number of abnormal leukemia cells in the bone marrow, blood, and various tissues and organs, and the patient may experience a series of symptoms such as infection, fever, bleeding, anemia, sweating, and weight loss. Leukemia is simply divided into two major types of leukemia, acute and chronic, and each of these can be basically divided into leukemias of lymphoid and non-lymphocytic origin, such as acute non-lymphocytic leukemia, acute lymphocytic leukemia, chronic granulocytic leukemia, and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. If a doctor suspects leukemia, the first thing to do is to clarify the diagnosis. That requires a comprehensive examination of the bone marrow, the processing plant of blood production, in addition to routine blood tests, including bone marrow aspiration (and bone marrow biopsy in some patients), immunophenotyping of bone marrow cells, chromosome examination and genetic screening, so that the type of leukemia can be accurately determined and an individualized treatment plan can be determined.
Once leukemia is diagnosed, an individualized and holistic treatment plan needs to be developed by an experienced physician. In the past, leukemia, like other malignant tumors, was thought of as an “incurable disease”, but in reality, having leukemia is not a death sentence. Due to the current development of science and technology, there has been a major breakthrough in the treatment of leukemia, new treatment methods, especially the improvement of chemotherapy regimens and the application of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, coupled with improved nutrition and sanitation, can not only extend the survival period of leukemia patients, but also many patients can be completely cured.
For leukemia patients and their families, it is important to recognize that treatment of leukemia is a relatively “long process” unlike ordinary diseases. After the diagnosis of leukemia, it must be treated actively, mainly with chemotherapy and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, and the disease remains in remission after 5 years of treatment, which is medically known as clinical cure. In the treatment of acute leukemia, an important part is chemotherapy, which is generally divided into two phases, the first phase is called the “induction remission” phase, which must be given to the patient with a sufficient amount of chemotherapy drugs to kill the leukemia cells in the patient’s body as soon as possible, after reaching “complete remission” there is actually a certain amount of leukemia cells in the patient’s body, and if we do not take advantage of the situation and consolidate the treatment, they may also ” The second phase of treatment that must be carried out here is called “consolidation and maintenance” treatment, this phase of chemotherapy drugs, the dosing interval can be lengthened, such as the first year of leukemia patients, a course of drugs every month, the second year can be two to three months once, the third year can extend the chemotherapy interval, if the patient can persist, no relapse in the middle, five years later, generally do not give drugs. Current clinical studies suggest that for patients whose chromosomal and molecular biology tests suggest a good prognosis, consolidation for four to six courses is usually sufficient; patients whose chromosomal and molecular biology tests suggest a moderate or poor prognosis do not need to undergo conventional chemotherapy even after receiving allogeneic HSCT. However, this long treatment process requires not only the hard work of doctors but also, and more importantly, the active cooperation of patients and their families. With the continuous improvement and enhancement of treatment methods, the 5-year survival rate and cure rate of acute leukemia have been greatly improved, so each of us patients should face the reality and be confident, and the medical experience is that optimists have a higher survival rate than pessimists, probably because emotions can influence the endocrine and immune system in the body, which plays an important role in the treatment. In short, with confidence, perseverance, ability to suffer, optimism and positive cooperation, the treatment effect will definitely be the icing on the cake. But with this disease if not treated in time or give up treatment, then often in a short time will become a victim under the disease
. Therefore, we encourage patients suffering from leukemia to have firm confidence in treating the disease.