Hemophilia and Leukemia

 Leukaemia

Introduction

Leukemia is cancer of blood-forming tissues, including bone marrow. The bone marrow is a spongy tissue found inside some bones, and it’s where the body makes blood cells. In leukemia, blood cells are not produced the way they should be and may have too many, too few, or blood cells that don't work properly. 

Many types exist such as acute lymphoblastic leukemia, acute myeloid leukemia and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. The type of leukemia depends on the type of blood cell that becomes cancer and whether it grows quickly or slowly. Leukemia occurs in adults above the age of 55 or children younger than 15 years old.

Symptoms

Leukemia symptoms vary, depending on the type of leukemia. Slow-growing types of leukemia don't have symptoms. Rapidly growing types of leukemia may cause symptoms that include fatigue, weight loss, frequent infections and easy bleeding or bruising. Common leukemia signs and symptoms include:

• Fever or chills

• Persistent fatigue, weakness

• Frequent or severe infections

• Losing weight without trying

• Swollen lymph nodes, enlarged liver or spleen

• Easy bleeding or bruising

• Recurrent nosebleeds

• Tiny red spots in your skin (petechiae)

• Excessive sweating, especially at night

• Bone pain or tenderness

Treatment

• Chemotherapy is a type of cancer treatment. It’s one of several cancer treatments that use 

drugs against various types of cancer.

• Radiation therapy zeroes in on cancerous cells while sparing as much healthy tissue around it.

• Immunotherapy uses certain drugs to boost defense system.

• Targeted therapy uses drugs that are focused on a specific features of leukemia cells.

• Bone marrow transplant replaces the cancerous blood-forming cells with new, healthy hematopoietic cells.

Statistics

An estimated 1.24 million blood cancer cases occur annually worldwide, accounting for approximately 6% of all cancer cases. Globally, while the number of newly diagnosed leukemia cases increased from 354.5 thousand in 1990 to 518.5 thousand in 2017.

Blood cancers account for about 10 percent of all diagnosed cancers each year. Blood cancers are more common in men than women. Childhood leukaemia accounts for about 25% of all cancers in children.

Haemophilia

Introduction

Haemophilia is caused by a mutation or change, in one of the genes, that provides instructions for making the clotting factor proteins needed to form a blood clot. This change can prevent the clotting protein from working properly or to be missing altogether. When blood can't clot properly, excessive bleeding (external and internal) occurs after any injury or damage.

Most of the cases involve middle-aged or elderly people, or young women who have recently given birth or are in the later stages of pregnancy. In rare cases, a person can develop haemophilia later in life.

Symptoms

Signs and symptoms of haemophilia vary, depending on the level of clotting factors. Signs and symptoms of spontaneous bleeding include:

• Unexplained and excessive bleeding from cuts or injuries, or after surgery or dental work

• Many large or deep bruises

• Unusual bleeding after vaccinations

• Pain, swelling or tightness in your joints

• Blood in your urine or stool

• Nosebleeds without a known cause

• In infants, unexplained irritability

Treatments

The best way to treat haemophilia is to replace the missing blood clotting factor so that the blood can clot properly. The two main types of clotting factor concentrates available are:

• Plasma-derived Factor Concentrates - Plasma is pale yellow or straw-coloured and contains proteins such as antibodies, albumin, and clotting factors. 

• Recombinant Factor Concentrates - This concentrate is a prepared factor concentrates are treated to remove or inactivate bloodborne viruses. 

Statistics

The worldwide incidence of haemophilia is approximately 1 case per 5000 males and about 400 babies are born with haemophilia each year. Approximately one third of affected individuals do not have a family history of the disorder.

World Haemophilia Day

World Haemophilia Day is celebrated globally on 17 April every year. This day is observed to raise awareness for haemophilia and other bleeding disorders.