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Diagnosis
Diagnosing acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and your ALL subtype usually involves a series of tests. An accurate diagnosis of the subtype is important. The exact diagnosis helps the doctor
Stem Cell Transplantation
What are Stem Cells?Blood stem cells are produced in the marrow of the bones and can become any kind of blood cell the body needs. Stem cells are constantly dividing and maturing into different types of blood cells, replacing older and worn-out blood cells in the body. They produce billions of new blood cells every day. If the stem cells cannot make enough new blood cells, many serious health problems can occur. These problems may include infections, anemia or bleeding.
Low Blood Counts
Cancer therapy can lower your blood cell counts and chemotherapy especially can affect rapidly dividing bone marrow cells. This hinders the marrow's ability to supply new cells to the blood during treatment and for some time after. Patients receiving treatment for blood cancer can develop
Integrative Medicine and Complementary Therapies
Integrative medicine (IM) is a form of medical therapy that combines practices and treatments from complementary medicine (yoga, acupuncture and massage) with conventional medicine (surgery, chemotherapy, radiation treatment and immunotherapy). Many cancer patients are using integrative medicine (IM) to help ease their cancer symptoms and reduce the side effects of cancer treatment. By integrating complementary therapies into conventional treatment plans, healthcare providers are better able to address the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of their patients.
Paul
Thank you on behalf of the Freeman Wilner Family for this Honored Hero Award in memory of my father, Dr. Freeman Wilner, he was a hero to many.
Addison
Florida is my happy place. It's where I've vacationed for over three decades. And when my husband and I had kids, it became our family's happy place too. Schedules are forbidden on vacation. We tell time by the sun as we sit on the beach with our feet in the sand, watching the tide roll in and out. While on vacation, we celebrate birthdays ― and they're done up big ― because that's the only way that we know how to celebrate birthdays ― BIG.
Harjeet
In May 2018, I moved to Edmonton from India with my husband hoping for a new career, a new life, and to start a family. Things were all right at first. Everything was going smoothly; I was living my normal life, but life had different plans.
In May 2019, I began experiencing high fevers with no other symptoms. Weeks passed, and I found myself in the emergency room numerous times. I was told that it was just a normal viral fever and took Tylenol to relieve it.
Tim
I knew multiple myeloma (MM) was a blood cancer. After all, my mom was diagnosed with myeloma at 62 years old in 2005. It’s extremely rare that I should also be diagnosed in 2021, but it happened. There’s no strong data that shows that it’s hereditary at this point. But more doctors are seeing family members being diagnosed. It's also becoming one of the most diagnosed cancers among African Americans.
Jonathan
I’ll start from the beginning.
In 2012, I was diagnosed with testicular cancer. I had surgery to remove the mixed germ cell tumor and then was on the road to recovery. My lymph nodes were larger than they should have been, so I opted to err on the side of caution and had a lymph node dissection to have them removed. That was an invasive surgery that kept me out of work and from doing any physical activity for over six months. Once I healed up, I went back to work as a full-time police officer in Worcester, MA.
Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor (TKI) Therapy
Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) are a type of targeted therapy. TKIs come as pills, taken orally. A targeted therapy identifies and attacks specific types of cancer cells while causing less damage to normal cells. In CML, TKIs target the abnormal BCR::ABL1 protein that causes uncontrolled CML cell growth and block its function, causing the CML cells to die.
The first therapy given for a disease is called “initial” or “first-line” treatment. The following four TKI drugs are approved as first-line treatment for chronic phase CML:
Chemotherapy and Drug Therapy
Chemotherapy drugs kill fast-growing cells throughout the body, including both cancer cells and normal, healthy cells. The damage to normal, healthy cells can cause side effects. Chemotherapy is typically given in cycles. Each cycle is made up of a certain number of days of treatment, followed by a certain number of days of rest.
Treatment
It's important that your doctor is experienced in treating patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) or has access to a CML specialist. Doctors who specialize in treating patients with CML are called “hematologist-oncologists.”
Types of CML TreatmentClick the links below to read about types of treatment for CML.
Treatment
There is not one treatment that is effective for all myelofibrosis (MF) patients. Patients have varying symptoms and circumstances that require different treatment options. Some MF patients remain symptom-free for many years and do not require immediate treatment. All MF patients, however, need to be closely monitored.
Diagnosis
While certain signs and symptoms may indicate that a person has PV, a series of tests are needed to confirm the diagnosis. It is important to have an accurate diagnosis, as it helps the doctor to:
- Estimate how the disease will progress
- Determine the appropriate treatment
Evaluation of an individual with suspected PV should start with a detailed medical history and a physical examination.
The medical history should include information about the patient’s:
Methods to Administer Drugs
Chemotherapy and other drugs are often given in combination with each other and can be given in different ways. The method of administering the drug is based on the actual disease diagnosed and the agent's effectiveness. Common methods include:
Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation
Allogeneic stem cell transplantation involves the use of stem cells from someone other than the patient. The donated stem cells can come from either a person related or not related to the patient.
Family Planning Options
Options for Having a Family After TreatmentMany patients will be able to conceive naturally after cancer treatment. Patients are generally counseled to wait at least 2 years after treatment is completed before attempting conception. Check with your doctor to find out how long after treatment you should wait. If you are not able to conceive naturally, there are a number of other ways to build a family.
Diagnosis
An accurate diagnosis is one of the most important aspects of a person’s care. Obtaining a precise diagnosis will help the doctor
- Determine the MDS subtype
- Estimate how the disease will progress
- Determine the most appropriate treatment
Since MDS can be a difficult disease to diagnose, you may want to get a second medical opinion by an experienced hematopathologist before you begin treatment.
Supportive Care
Treatment given to relieve the symptoms of a disease and the treatment’s side effects is known as supportive care. The goal of supportive care is to improve the patient’s quality of life and to relieve discomfort as much as possible. Supportive care is an important part of MDS treatment.
Chemotherapy and Drug Therapy
There are many different types of drugs used in the treatment of MDS.
Lower-Risk MDSImmunosuppressive Therapy. Drugs that suppress certain parts of the immune system can help some patients with lower-risk MDS. In some types of MDS, lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell, may attack the bone marrow, causing it to stop making enough healthy blood cells. Immunosuppressive therapy lowers the body’s immune response to allow bone marrow stem cells to grow and make new blood cells. The main immunosuppressive therapy drugs used to treat MDS are:
Gregg
The date was May 15, 2015, in the local office of the hematologist/oncologist and I was given this message after the results of my bone marrow biopsy taken a week earlier.
T-Cell Prolymphocytic Leukemia (T-PLL)
T-cell prolymphocytic leukemia (T-PLL) is an extremely rare and typically aggressive malignancy (cancer) that is characterized by the out of control growth of mature T-cells (T-lymphocytes). T-cells are a type of white blood cell that protects the body from infections. T-PLL affects older adults with a median age at diagnosis of 61 years, and it is more common in men than in women.
Treatment of Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia
Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is a unique subtype of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). APL cells have a very specific abnormality that involves chromosomes 15 and 17, leading to the formation of an abnormal fusion gene called PML/RARα. This mutated gene causes many of the features of the disease. APL accounts for about 10-15 percent of all adult AML cases diagnosed each year.