Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Leukemia |
LeukemiaNoun1. Malignant neoplasm of blood-forming tissues; characterized by abnormal proliferation of leukocytes; one of the four major types of cancer. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "leukemia" was first used: 1855. (references) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Food & Agriculture | The term leukosis(1)indicates a malignant proliferation of leukocyte-forming tissue. Source: European Union. (references) |
Health | Cancer of blood-forming tissue. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Leukemia is a group of cancers of the blood-forming tissues. The word leukemia tends to be used as an umbrella term. Back in the 19th century it was one single homogenous disease that was deadly and characterized by a white appearance of blood samples. However with our growing understanding of pathologic and cytologic processes we can now differentiate numerous diseases which require different treatment.
Leukemia, first recognised by the German pathologist Rudolf Virchow in 1847, starts with tissues such as bone marrow behaving abnormally. This is caused by a mutation in its DNA. Bone marrow stem cells produce billions of red blood cells and white blood cells each day, respectively carrying oxygen and fighting disease around all parts of the body. Leukemia is characterised by an excessive production of abnormal versions of these cells, overcrowding the bone marrow. This results in decreased production and function of normal blood cells. Leukemia can spread to the lymph nodes, spleen, liver, central nervous system and other organss.
As with all cancers, leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases. In leukemia, the diseases are classified according to the type of abnormal cell found most in the blood. Leukemia is also clinically split in to its acute and chronic forms. The four main forms are:
Acute leukemias are characterised by the rapid growth of immature blood cells, which then die early (within one to five months.) This crowding makes the bone marrow unable to produce healthy blood cells. Acute forms of leukemia are most common in children and young adults (in fact it is a more common cause of death for children in the US than any other type of malignant disease.)
Chronic leukemias are distinguished by the slower excessive buildup of mature, but still abnormal, blood cells. Typically taking two to five years to progress, the cells live too long, meaning too many mostly white blood cells form in the blood. Chronic leukemia mostly appears in older people. Whereas acute leukemia must be treated immediately, chronic forms are sometimes monitored for some time before treatment to ensure maximum effectiveness of therapy.
(The symptoms listed are not exclusive to, nor necessarily indicative of leukemia.) Damage to the bone marrow results in a lack of blood platelets, which are important in the blood clotting process. This means people with leukemia may become bruised or bleed excessively. Similarly, the blood cell deficiency leads to shortness of breath and fatigue (blood cells are needed to carry oxygen efficiently around the body). Bone or joint pain may occur, possibly because of cancer spreading to these areas. Headaches and vomiting are indicative of the cancer having dispersed to the central nervous system.
In the case of acute myelogenous leukemia, small rash-like spots on the skin as well as enlarged gums are typically evident. Acute lymphocytic leukemia can cause the thymus to become enlarged, and can mean severe coughing or even suffocation. Chronic myelocytic leukemia can lead to enlargement of the spleen. Chronic lymphotic leukemia can manifest itself as oversized lymph node.
Scientists are still actively searching for the exact cause of leukemia. The bone marrow stem cells are thought to become cancerous because of mutation to their DNA. This could come from exposure to radiation, carcinogenic substances, or translocation (swapping) of genetic material in the chromosomes. It is possible to test whether some of these translocations have occurred in a person's chromosome, confirming whether they have or are likely to develop leukemia. Similar genetic tests can also determine the aggressiveness needed in treatment and also the expected prognosis.
Viruses have also been linked, with varying levels of speculation, to some forms of leukemia. T-cell leukemia has recently been confirmed to be the result of two viruses.
In the early 1990s concern was raised in the UK about the effect of nuclear power plants on unborn children, when clusters of leukemia cases were discovered nearby to some of these plants. The effect was speculative because clusters were also found where no nuclear plants were present, and not all plants had clusters around them. Using statistical analysis researchers at Southampton University concluded that a link was present, deducing that radiation damage to men working at the plants had caused genetic abnormalities in their children. After this report British Nuclear Fuels initially advised workers who were being exposed to high levels of radiation not to father children, although they have since withdrawn this advice.
Major treatments include chemotherapy and radiation therapy. These are typically used in combination to maximise effectiveness and reduce any particular side effect. Because of the severity of some courses, bone marrow transplants are sometimes necessary. Healthy bone marrow transplanted in to the body helps rebuild tissue damaged by the treatment.
27,900 adults and 2,300 children are diagnosed each year with leukemia in the US. Over the last thirty years, the chances of survival have doubled, although they remain still quite low. These range from a 22 per cent survival rate in 1970 to 43 per cent rate in the 1990s.
Overview
Types
The most common forms in adults are AML and CML, whereas in children ALL is most widely observed.Symptoms
Causes
Treatment
Survival
External Links
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Leukemia."
Synonyms: LeukemiaSynonyms: cancer of the blood (n), leukaemia (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Disease | Sore, ulcer, abscess, fester, boil; pimple, wen; (swelling); carbuncle, gathering, imposthume, peccant humor, issue; rot, canker, cold sore, fever sore; cancer, carcinoma, leukemia, neoplastic disease, malignancy, tumor; caries, mortification, corruption, gangrene, sphacelus, sphacelation, leprosy; eruption, rash, breaking out. |
Anthrax, bighead; blackleg, blackquarter; cattle plague, glanders, mange, scrapie, milk sickness; heartworm, feline leukemia, roundworms; quarter-evil, quarter-ill; rinderpest. | |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Title |
References | |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | A 10 year-old white girl is pictured here with her father in a swimming pool. She was diagnosed at age three with a form of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) that did not respond to therapy. She is presently in long-term remission after an experimental bone marrow transplant was performed. She now suffers from chronic GVH (Graft Versus Host Disease) which is rare.Credit: Linda Bartlett (photographer). |  | Seen are two young girls with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) with a medical technician who is taking a blood sample from one of the girls while the other one looks on. The girls have undergone chemotherapy.Credit: Bill Branson (photographer). |
 | Shows photo of Dr. E. C. MacDowell and associates at the Carnegie Institute of Washington, Department of Genetics studying hereditary pattern of leukemia in 1935.Credit: Unknown photographer/artist. |  | Shown are electron micrographs of the family of retroviruses that reproduce in t-lymphocytes. Retroviruses, which cause a variety of naturally occurring cancers in many animal species, also cause cancers in human beings. The first two human retroviruses to be discovered and characterized, human t-cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-I) and type II (HTLV-II), have been associated with the human cancers known, respectively, as adult t-cell leukemia and hairy cell leukemia. HTLV-III is the AIDS virus, now called HIV-I. Epidemiologic studies have shown that HTLV-I infection and t-cell malignancy both cluster in certain geographic areas and in certain populations, and suggest that transmission occurs in the household, through sexual contacts, and perhaps at birth. See artwork: GR-30.Credit: Unknown photographer/artist. |
 | Human cells with acute myelocytic leukemia (AML) in the pericardial fluid, shown with an esterase stain at 400x.Credit: Unknown photographer/artist. |  | A histological slide of hairy cell leukemia.Credit: Unknown photographer/artist. |
 | A little girl, possibly a leukemia patient, is sitting on the doctor's lap. The girl is blonde, around 4 or 5 years old and conversing with the doctor.Credit: Unknown photographer/artist. |  | Peripheral blood smear showing blast crisis of chronic myelogenous leukemia.Credit: CDC. |
 | Histopathology of toxoplasmosis of lung. Complication of chronic myelogenous leukemia.Credit: CDC. | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) is also called acute granulocytic leukemia. (references) | |
The procedure is used to diagnose leukemia and to check the response to treatment. (references) | ||
Such cases are called acute stem cell leukemia or acute undifferentiated leukemia (AUL). (references) | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Leukemia" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 88.24% of the time. "Leukemia" is used about 17 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 88.24% | 15 | 90,616 |
| Noun (proper) | 11.76% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 17 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "leukemia": Abelson Leukemia Virus ♦ acute leukemia ♦ acute lymphoblastic leukemia ♦ acute lymphocytic leukemia ♦ acute myelocytic leukemia ♦ acute myelogenous leukemia ♦ acute myeloid leukemia ♦ acute nonlymphocytic leukemia ♦ chronic granulocytic leukemia ♦ chronic leukemia ♦ chronic lymphocytic leukemia ♦ chronic myelocytic leukemia ♦ chronic myelogenous leukemia ♦ chronic myeloid leukemia ♦ chronic phase chronic myelogenous leukemia ♦ Graft vs Leukemia Effect ♦ granulocytic leukemia ♦ hairy cell leukemia ♦ histiocytic leukemia ♦ Leukemia L5178 ♦ Leukemia P388 ♦ lymphoblastic leukemia ♦ lymphocytic leukemia ♦ Moloney Leukemia Virus ♦ monoblastic leukemia ♦ monocytic leukemia ♦ myeloblastic leukemia ♦ myelocytic leukemia ♦ myeloid leukemia ♦ promyelocytic leukemia ♦ Radiation Leukemia Virus ♦ smoldering leukemia ♦ stage 0 chronic lymphocytic leukemia ♦ stage I chronic lymphocytic leukemia ♦ stage II chronic lymphocytic leukemia ♦ stage III chronic lymphocytic leukemia ♦ stage IV chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "leukemia"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | leukimi (leucaemia, leukaemia). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | اللوكيميا سرطان الدم. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | левкемия (leucaemia). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 白血病 . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | leukémie. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | lymphæmia (leukocythemia, leukosis, lymphemia), lymphæmi (leukocythemia, leukosis, lymphemia), leukose (avian leukosis, leukocythemia, leukosis, lymphemia), leukocythæmia (leukocythemia, leukosis, lymphemia), leukæmi (Bennett disease, leukocythemia, leukosis, lymphemia). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | lymfocytose (leukocythemia, leukosis, lymphemia), leukemie (leukaemia, leukocythemia, leukosis, lymphemia), leucaemia (leukocythemia, leukosis, lymphemia). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | سرطان خون(طب). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | lymfemia (leukocythemia, leukosis, lymphemia), leukemia (leukocythemia, leukosis, lymphemia, occupational leukaemia), verisyöpä (leukocythemia, leukosis, lymphemia, occupational leukaemia). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | leucémie (leukaemia, leukocythemia, leukosis). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | leukämie (leukaemia, leukocythemia, leukosis, lymphemia, occupational leukaemia). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | λευχαιμία (leukaemia, leukaimia, leukocythemia, leukosis, lymphemia). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | לאוקומי", סרטן ""ם. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | leukémia (leuchaemia), fehérvérûség. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | leucemia (bovine leukosis, leukaemia, leukocythemia, leukosis, lymphemia, lymphosarcoma, malignant lymphoma). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 白血病 . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | はっけつびょう. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 백혈병 (leukaemia). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | eukemialay linfémia (leukocythemia, leukosis, lymphemia), leucose (avian leukosis, leukocythemia, leukosis, lymphemia), leucocitémia (leukocythemia, leukosis, lymphemia), leucemia (leukaemia, leukocyte, leukocythemia, leukosis, lymphemia), leucócito (levant). (various references) лейкемия (leukaemia). (various references) leukemija. (various references) leucemia (bovine leukosis, leukaemia, leukocythemia, leukosis, lymphemia, lymphosarcoma, malignant lymphoma). (various references) leukemi (leukaemia, leukocythemia, leukosis, lymphemia). (various references) ลูคีเมีย (leukaemia). (various references) lösemi (leukaemia), kan kanseri (leukaemia). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Greek | 700 BCE-300 CE | leukos. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "leukemia": leukemias. (additional references) | |
| |
"Leukemia" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Beukema, Ilukamba, lequemia, Leucadia, Leucaenea, leukeamia, leukemic, Leupena, lucania, Lukanima, Lukeji, Lukoji. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "leukemia" (pronounced luwkē"mēu) |
| 4 | -ē" m ē u | academia, anemia, Bohemia, hypoglycemia, uremia. |
| 3 | -m ē u | arrhythmia, bulimia, hypothermia, ischemia, Lamia, Macadamia. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-e-i-k-l-m-u" | |
-2 letters: kalium, mealie, meikle. | |
-3 letters: alike, elemi, email, ileum, kelim, maile, miaul, ulema, umiak. | |
-4 letters: akee, alee, alme, alum, amie, emeu, ilea, ilka, kail, kale, kame, kami, keel, lake, lame, leak, leek, leke, leku, lieu, like, lima, lime, mail, make, male, maul, meal, meek, mike, mile, milk, mule. | |
-5 letters: ail, aim, ale, ami, amu, auk. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-e-e-i-k-l-m-u" | |
+1 letter: leukaemia, leukemias. | |
+2 letters: leukaemias. | |
+4 letters: antileukemic. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)4C 65 75 6B 65 6D 69 61 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).-.. . ..- -.- . -- .. .- |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01001100 01100101 01110101 01101011 01100101 01101101 01101001 01100001 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)L e u k e m i a |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)004C 0065 0075 006B 0065 006D 0069 0061 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)4671877771797567 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Photo Album 6. Quotations: Non-fiction 7. Usage Frequency 8. Expressions | 9. Expressions: Internet 10. Translations: Modern 11. Translations: Ancient 12. Derivations | 13. Rhymes 14. Anagrams 15. Orthography 16. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
