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September is Blood Cancer Awareness Month
Childhood Leukemia
Leukemia is the most common type of cancer in children and teens. Among children and teens diagnosed with cancer, 1 in 3 will have a type of leukemia. Leukemias are cancers of the blood cells. Leukemia most often occurs in the earliest forms of white blood cells.
The center of our bones, called the bone marrow, makes our red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. When leukemia occurs, cancer cells multiply in the bone marrow. As the cancer cells build up, they crowd out the normal cells. When this happens, leukemia cells can spill into the bloodstream, and the bone marrow can have a tough time making enough normal cells. This can cause people with leukemia to have symptoms like low energy, bone pain, infections, easy bleeding or bruising.
Sometimes leukemia can spread to other parts of the body such as:
- Lymph nodes
- Spleen
- Liver
- Central Nervous System (the brain and spinal cord)
- Testicles
- Other organs
Some other childhood cancers, such as neuroblastoma or rhabdomyosarcoma, start in other organs and can spread to the bone marrow but these cancers are not leukemia.
There are a few types of leukemia that affect children. The type of leukemia a child has plays a key role in how it is treated and the child’s outlook (prognosis). To diagnose leukemia, testing on samples of the blood, bone marrow, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and sometimes lymph nodes may be needed.
The different types of leukemia are based on:
- If the leukemia is acute (fast growing) or chronic (slower growing).
- If the leukemia starts in lymphoid cells or myeloid cells, both of which are types of immune cells that are made in the bone marrow.
Be sure to ask the healthcare team if you have any questions about your child’s leukemia diagnosis.
Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia (JMML) is a rare type of leukemia that is neither chronic nor acute. It usually does not grow as fast as AML or as slowly as CML. It occurs most often in young children (average age of 2 years). Symptoms can include pale skin, fever, cough, easy bruising or bleeding, trouble breathing (from too many white blood cells in the lungs), rash, enlarged spleen, liver and/or lymph nodes. JMML is often caused by gene changes that affect the RAS/MAPK pathway. It can also be associated with Neurofibromatosis type 1, a family cancer syndrome and Noonan syndrome, a rare inherited condition that affects how children grow and develop.
To access the full article on the importance of blood cancer in children, click here.
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