• Question: i read many books in which some one had leukemia and in most of them the person died slowly like geting closer to death each day. what does it make them be so weak and die?

    Asked by isita3012 to Clare, Mariana, Pedro, Robert, Susanne on 20 Nov 2012.
    • Photo: Robert Insall

      Robert Insall answered on 20 Nov 2012:

      isita,

      Several things.

      1. The cancerous white blood cells clog the patients’ blood and make it thin and sticky.
      2. The cancer cells use all the patients’ energy so there’s none left to keep the body going
      3. The cancerous white blood cells start an immune response that hurts the patients’ healthy tissue.

    • Photo: Clare Taylor

      Clare Taylor answered on 20 Nov 2012:

      Leukaemia is a form of cancer that affects the blood or the bone marrow. Bone marrow is really important – it’s where we produce red blood cells and important white blood cells called lymphocytes which are part of the immune system. In leukaemia, there is a problem with the white blood cells and the cancer leads to overproduction of immature white blood cells that are not quite ready to do their job properly (fighting infections). Because there are more immature white blood cells this stops the bone marrow from producing healthy cells and people are much more at risk of catching infections.

      This overproduction can also damage the bone marrow which can lead to problems with production of red blood cells and platelets. Platelets are important for blooding clotting so leukaemia patients can have problems with excessive bleeding, and shortage of red blood cells can cause anaemia and shortage of breath.

      There can also be complications if the cancerous cells invades the central nervous system. Altogether, leukaemia is a very unpleasant disease that is very difficult to treat because there are so many different symptoms.Sometimes a bone marrow transplant is the only option.

      That is why I donate blood and also put myself on the bone marrow transplant register. Although, it would only be a small chance that my tissue type would match someone else’s (apart from my sister) I would happily donate some of my bone marrow if I thought it could help save someone’s life.

      The symptoms are

    • Photo: Susanne Muekusch

      Susanne Muekusch answered on 20 Nov 2012:

      Hi isita,

      People with leukemia suffer from the consequences of leukemic cells making up a proportion of the blood- at the cost of normal blood cells.

      Too few red blood cells cause anemia, that means the oxygen supply of the muscles and other organs is not as good as it should be. This makes the patients weak and tired.
      They have less white blood cells as well. These are important for our immune response, therefore the patients are more susceptible to infections.

      The leukemic cells becoming too prominent in the blood is a slow process compared to people dying from a heart attack.

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