Types of Leukemia
The
types of leukemia are grouped by how quickly the disease develops and gets
worse. Leukemia is either chronic
(gets worse slowly) or acute
(gets worse quickly):
Chronic
leukemia—Early in the disease, the abnormal blood cells can
still do their work, and people with chronic leukemia may not have any symptoms. Slowly, chronic leukemia gets worse. It causes symptoms as the number of leukemia
cells in the blood rises.
Acute
leukemia—The blood cells are very
abnormal. They cannot carry out their normal
work. The number of abnormal cells
increases rapidly. Acute leukemia
worsens quickly.
The types of leukemia are also grouped by the type of
white blood cell that is affected. Leukemia can arise in
lymphoid
cells or myeloid
cells. Leukemia that affects lymphoid cells is called
lymphocytic
leukemia. Leukemia that affects
myeloid cells is called myeloid leukemia or
myelogenous
leukemia.
There are four common types of leukemia:
Hairy
cell leukemia is a rare type of chronic leukemia. This booklet does not deal with hairy cell
leukemia or other rare types of leukemia.
Together, these rare leukemias account for about 5,200 new cases of
leukemia each year. The Cancer
Information Service (1-800-4-CANCER) can provide information about these types
of leukemia.
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