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Side Effects
Therapy for CLL sometimes produces side effects. Side effects from kinase inhibitor drugs and monoclonal antibody therapy are generally milder than side effects from chemotherapy.
For most patients, treatment side effects are temporary and go away once therapy ends. For other patients, side effects can be more severe, sometimes requiring hospitalization. Some patients never have side effects.
Stem Cell Transplantation
For certain patients with CML, allogeneic stem cell transplantation (the infusion of donor stem cells into a patient) is their best treatment option. However, this type of transplant can cause serious or even life-threatening complications and side effects. In addition, it is often not a good option for older patients or for patients who have other health problems.
Treatment
It's important that your doctor is experienced in treating people who have chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) or works in consultation with a hematologist oncologist who has experience treating CMML patients.
Types of CMML TreatmentIn most cases, CMML can't be cured, but it can be treated. Doctors use several types of treatment for adults with CMML, although there's no one standard drug therapy for the disease:
Follow-Up Care
Those who have been treated for MDS are encouraged to:
Signs and Symptoms
Essential thrombocythemia (ET) is often detected during a routine blood test before an individual has any symptoms.
The signs and symptoms of ET are linked to high platelet counts that cause the development of a thrombus (blood clot). The symptoms include:
Returning to School
Consider educating family members, friends, school personnel and healthcare providers about your child's possible long-term and late effects of treatment. In particular, talk with teachers about your child's needs before he or she returns to school, as they and other school personnel may not be aware of the potential for long-term and late effects of treatment.
Diarrhea and Constipation
Diarrhea and constipation are common side effects of cancer treatment. The severity of diarrhea or constipation varies among patients and depends on the type of treatment you receive. Sometimes side effects improve as you adjust to treatment. Most side effects go away when treatment ends.
Tell your healthcare team if you are experiencing new or worsening diarrhea or constipation. Do not take over-the-counter medications without talking to your doctor.
DiarrheaFollow these tips to manage diarrhea:
Chemotherapy
Because of acute lymphoblastic leukemia's (ALL's) rapid growth, most patients need to start chemotherapy soon after diagnosis.
Chemotherapy drugs kill fast-growing cells throughout the body including cancer cells and normal, healthy cells. The damage to normal, healthy cells can cause side effects. Yet, not everyone experiences side effects the same way.
ALL treatment consists of:
Refractory and Relapsed Childhood ALL
Most children with ALL are cured with standard chemotherapy treatments. But about 15 percent of young patients have ALL that returns after remission. This is referred to as a “relapse” of the disease (or “relapsed ALL”). Some children are unable to achieve a remission because their cancer does not respond to treatment. In these cases, the disease is referred to as “refractory” (or “refractory ALL”).
Disease Complications
As myelofibrosis (MF) progresses, complications may arise:
Hair Loss
Drugs that damage or destroy cancer cells also affect normal cells. Rapidly dividing cells, such as hair follicle cells, are the most affected. This is why hair loss (alopecia) is a common side effect of chemotherapy. Hair loss can range from thinning to baldness. It may be sudden or slow. You may also lose hair from other areas of your body such as eyelashes and eyebrows.
Hair usually grows back after treatment ends. The thickness, texture or color of hair may be different when it grows back.
Resources for Survivors
Survivorship WorkbookUse this Survivorship Workbook to collect all the important information you need throughout diagnosis, treatment, follow-up care and long-term management of a blood cancer.
Dellyanett
I was healed from cancer in 90 days! God's glory was displayed in my life in such a major way! I knew I was coming into this with VICTORY and coming out of it in VICTORY! My faith was elevated to another level. It was only a season of my life that came and went, TO GOD BE THE GLORY! This happened at a time when I was going to move to Atlanta Georgia to pursue what God has called me to do. One of those things was Acting. It seemed that at that time everything was working in my favor.
Madeline
Being in a very close-knit family, we were devastated upon learning of our sister Madeline’s diagnosis of AML. There were 4 of us girls and all 3 of us wanted to do anything to help our sister survive. Our biggest challenge was staying positive and offering her and her family support. The 3 of us were tested and I was her perfect match. I was overjoyed to be able to do this for her. Although my other sisters felt let down that they weren’t, we were all constant support through her journey.
Jennifer
Jennifer of Hayward, CA, was diagnosed with myeloma (MM) in 2008. During this process, she endured a year of intense chemotherapy, followed by an autologous stem cell transplant where her own stem cells were harvested and reintroduced into her body on January 8, 2010. This resulted in an extended hospital stay followed by radiation treatments. She is currently in remission and remains under doctor’s care. After her diagnosis and treatments, she wanted to give back to others living with the disease.
Grace
I’m 15 years old, and I’m a ballerina, Junior Zoo Keeper at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, actress, singer, and I am a childhood leukemia survivor.
When I was five years old, my parents noticed that I was getting a lot more bruises and nose bleeds than usual (even living in New Mexico at the time). My abdomen was really swollen and I was taking frequent naps, which was also alarming to my parents. They took me to an urgent care location near my house where the doctors said that I was fine.
Louise
During the last week of July 2019, Louise, then-two-and-a-half-year-old, developed unusual red dots on her chest and some gnarly, yet explainable, bruises all over her body. We chalked the rash up to wearing an unwashed shirt and the bruises to being an extremely active two-year-old. Then, after her gums bled one afternoon, we hopped on Google and became increasingly concerned with the search results. However, Louise wasn’t acting “sick,” so her parents ignored Dr. Google’s diagnosis.
Barbara
At age 60, I stopped working as a full-time physical therapist and started working PRN at two different facilities. My reasoning was I could help my elderly but healthy parents when needed and help out with my grandkids. Everything was going great until the COVID-19 pandemic hit. I was laid off from both jobs. My father was very afraid of COVID-19 and wouldn’t let my mom leave the house, so I started doing all of their shopping. I had been fatigued for months but attributed this to work or being out of shape.
Allison
My story is not all that different from many others. It began with two-year-old me not feeling well and my mom taking me to the pediatrician on a Monday. They diagnosed me with an ear infection and gave me antibiotics. On Friday, still not better, my mom asked my dad if they should let the doctor take another look at me. In my mom’s words, “Something’s not right with my little girl.” Fortunately, the doctor ran a platelet test. My results were so off the charts that she also ran the test on herself to make sure the machine was not broken.
Douglas
My story begins almost 24 years ago in 1996, when I was diagnosed with cancer, chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Back then, there was no cure for CLL except for a bone marrow transplant (BMT), but that procedure only had a survival rate of 50%, not very attractive odds. My prognosis was I had anywhere from six to 15 years without a BMT.
Justin
In March 2012, when Justin was in the sixth grade, he started to rapidly lose weight, was experiencing extreme exhaustion and night sweats. After multiple visits to the doctor but no answers, his parents finally took him to the hospital for more intensive testing, including a bone marrow biopsy. One day later they received the shocking diagnosis: acute lymphoblastic leukemia.