Joined: 27 May 2006 Posts: 319 Location: Gastonia, NC.
Itp Posted: 06-11-06 20:17pm
I jsut found out a friend of mine has
this, they thought he has lukemia. Can
anyone tell me anything about it? How
serious is it? Can it be treated? Is it
contagious? I am very concernd.
Leukemia is a malignant disease of the
bone marrow. Like in all malignant tumors
the precise etiology is unknown. It is
believed that mutation of certain genes
causes malignant cell proliferation.
Mutation can be inherited or acquired.
Irradiation, viral infections and some
drugs and toxins can cause gene mutation.
Malignant cells destroy the normal cells
in the bone marrow which leads to anemia,
bleeding and immune deficit. Malignant
cells can also infiltrate the other organs
in the body. Clinically there are 2 types
of leukemia: acute and chronic. Acute one
is very progressive and has bad prognosis.
Chronic leukemia goes slowly but finally
turns into acute and ends with death too.
Prognosis also depends from the cell type
(lymphatic or myeloic). Myeloic leukemias
has worst prognosis than lymphatic.
Leukemia is treated with chemotherapy and
bone marrow transplantation.
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mominashoe
Supporter
Joined: 04 Dec 2007 Posts: 1560 Location: , USA
Thanks: 13
Thanked:3
Posted: 04-14-08 09:32am
The question was about ITP, NOT leukemia.
I had this condition when I was 2. We
found out that I had it because I would
bruise so easily. At one time it was
believed that the disease was caused by a
certain vaccine. There was one other girl
in my town who had it and they were going
to move to another state to get special
treatment. There was a new steroid
treatment which they used for me. I have
had no recurrence in 27 years, but that is
because I had the acute kind of ITP.
Spelled out it is called Idiopathic
thrombocytopenic purpura. It is not
contagious. I guess in simple terms, it's
a condition of not having enough blood
clotting cells....so you bleed easily and
a lot. The good thing is that it isn't
life threatening, and it's a better
diagnosis than leukemia!
There are two kinds though: acute (which
doesn't last a long time and never comes
back, like I had, and mostly affects
children) and chronic, which will last a
long time, but treatment (of which there
are several kinds) might not be necessary
forever, even for them.
I have looked up a page that covers pretty
much everything you might want to know
about it in simple terms. I hope
everything goes ok!
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This page was last updated on June 11, 2008
