Effective Leukemia Treatment
Using our wealth of experience and world class facilities we have successfully treated many patients with Leukemia, the bone marrow cancer that is hard to cure using conventional treatment alone. Leukemia is a range of complex diseases with a variety of treatment options. Sometimes it can be hard to know which treatment may be best for you, which is why we offer a no obligation free consultation to help you to decide whether or not bone marrow transplant is suitable for you.
Unlike most cancers, which form a solid mass of cancer cells, known as a tumor, in a specific part of the body, leukemia is a cancer of the bone marrow and blood. Derived from the Greek words ‘Leukos’ (white) and ‘Haima’ (blood), the disease usually involves excess production of abnormal white blood cells.
The cancer damages the DNA of immature blood cells (mainly white ones), causing the blood cells to grow and divide erratically. Usually, healthy blood cells die and are replaced by new ones, produced by the bone marrow. These immature cells continue to multiply but do not die as easily as healthy cells so they increase in numbers, squeezing out the healthy cells.
Types of Leukemia
Leukemia can be chronic or acute. In acute leukemia the disease progresses rapidly, producing more and more useless immature cells in the bone marrow and releasing them into the blood. In chronic leukemia the progression is much slower, so it allows for the production of a few healthy cells, meaning that it takes much longer, sometimes even years, for the bad cells to push out the good ones.
As well as being classified as chronic or acute, leukemia is further categorized by the type of blood cell that is affected. If the cancer affects the bone marrow that makes lymphocytes (a kind of white blood cell), the disease is known as acute/chronic lymphocytic leukemia. If the cancer is in the type of bone marrow cells that produce red blood cells, platelets or white cells other than lymphocytes, the disease is called myelogenous leukemia.
Bone Marrow Transplant for Leukemia
A bone marrow transplant can save a leukemia sufferer’s life. By destroying all or most of the existing malfunctioning bone marrow through ablative or myeloblative treatment, we can transplant healthy stem cells from cord blood or donor peripheral blood stem cells or bone marrow. The transplanted bone marrow will engraft into the patient’s bone marrow, creating healthy new cancer-free bone marrow and, hence, healthy blood cells.
For your free consultation with a bone marrow specialist please contact us and we’ll make sure the right person gets back to you.
