Those white blood cells crowd out the red blood cells and platelets that your body needs to be healthy. The extra white blood cells don’t work right.
Leukemia Symptoms
Different types of leukemia can cause different problems. You might not notice any signs in the early stages of some forms. When you do have symptoms, they may include:
- Weakness or fatigue
- Bruising or bleeding easily
- Fever or chills
- Infections that are severe or keep coming back
- Pain in your bones or joints
- Headaches
- Vomiting
- Seizures
- Weight loss
- Night sweats
- Shortness of breath
- Swollen lymph nodes or organs like your spleen
Leukemia Causes and Risk Factors
No one knows exactly what causes leukemia. People who have it have certain unusual chromosomes, but the chromosomes don’t cause leukemia.
You can’t prevent leukemia, but certain things may trigger it. You might have a higher risk if you:
- Smoke
- Are exposed to a lot of radiation or certain chemicals
- Had radiation therapy or chemotherapy to treat cancer
- Have a family history of leukemia
- Have a genetic disorder like Down syndrome
How does leukemia happen?
Blood has three types of cells: white blood cells that fight infection, red blood cells that carry oxygen, and platelets that help blood clot.
Every day, your bone marrow makes billions of new blood cells, and most of them are red cells. When you have leukemia, your body makes more white cells than it needs.
These leukemia cells can’t fight infection the way normal white blood cells do. And because there are so many of them, they start to affect the way your organs work. Over time, you may not have enough red blood cells to supply oxygen, enough platelets to clot your blood, or enough normal white blood cells to fight infection.
Leukemia classifications
Leukemia is grouped by how fast it develops and gets worse, and by which type of blood cell is involved.
The first group, how fast it develops, is divided into acute and chronic leukemia.
- Acute leukemia happens when most of the abnormal blood cells don’t mature and can’t carry out normal functions. It can get bad very fast.
- Chronic leukemia happens when there are some immature cells, but others are normal and can work the way they should. It gets bad more slowly than acute forms do.