Search Results

Isabelle

I was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) on December 4, 2003, at the age of five. As a young child, I was very energetic and loved to do anything outdoors and active, and I especially loved a good competition with my older brother Harrison. My parents began noticing that something was off when I started complaining about not being able to walk up the big hills in San Francisco where we lived. This was very uncharacteristic of me as I loved to race my brother to the top.

Savanna

My name is Savanna, I’m 24 years old, and I am a two-time Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) survivor! I was diagnosed in 2017 when I was 18 during my freshman year of college. I had been severely sick for a year and a half with symptoms ranging from nausea, vomiting, unexplained weight loss, lack of appetite to a distended abdomen, debilitating migraines, swollen lymph nodes all over my body, extreme fatigue, and drenching night sweats. I had test after test done, saw doctor after doctor, and after months of being my own advocate, I had finally received a diagnosis.

Julie

March 22, 2020- 7 years since acute myeloid leukemia (AML) diagnosis, CURED!!! I am so blessed to be alive to celebrate my 7th year since diagnosis of AML! Who celebrates being diagnosed with AML or any cancer for that matter? But let’s be honest, in the cancer lottery, AML, is not one of the preferred. At least if you cling to cancer stats which is something I highly discourage. The first problem with AML stats specifically-the mean DX age of 68ish.

Graysen

Graysen was born in March 2017. She was born the day before my birthday and we often say that she was the greatest birthday present ever. She was such an easy-going baby - happy, curious, and sweet with a magnetic personality. She was seemingly healthy, happy and 21 months old when we shockingly learned she had leukemia in November 2018. It was a diagnosis we never saw coming and one we were forced to simultaneously digest, navigate and hit head on.

Lori

Lori’s journey to becoming a Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) volunteer began back in 2002 through her own experience with being diagnosed with Myelofibrosis (MF). Lori had just embarked on a new job as a real estate agent to a new home builder when she began to feel extremely tired and have pain in her hands. She chalked up her sickness to a case of the flu; however, after deciding to go to her doctor, he recommended some blood work which came back showing high white counts. Her doctor referred her to an Oncologist who did a bone marrow biopsy.

Aila

Aila was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) on October 5, 2023. She was nearly 16 months old and was just getting used to being a walking toddler and enjoying the exploration of her world. Aila had been feeling sick for a few weeks before she was diagnosed. She had fevers, irritability, fatigue, sleeping long hours, and a decreased appetite. In the last several days before she was diagnosed, she started getting unexplained bruising and petechiae (broken blood vessels) all over her body.

Stefan

El estudio más importante hasta la fecha demuestra que la mayoría de los pacientes con cáncer de la sangre se benefician de una tercera dosis primaria de la vacuna contra la COVID-19 de tipo ARNm

Who We Are

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is at the forefront of the fight to cure cancer. We are the largest nonprofit dedicated to creating a world without blood cancers. Since 1949, we’ve invested nearly $1.3 billion in groundbreaking research, pioneering many of today’s most innovative approaches.

Cancer is a heck of an opponent.

It's a bully. But we aren't afraid of a fight. It's elusive. But our focus never fades. It's deadly. But we are known, cancer killers.

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. 

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.

Chemotherapy and Drug Therapy

There are many different types of drugs used in the treatment of MDS.

Immunosuppressive 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:

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. 

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.

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:

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.”  

Click the links below to read about types of treatment for CML.

Nora

Nora was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) on August 20, 2018. This is the day our lives were turned upside down and forever changed. Nora was about three weeks away from her second birthday, and we were in utter shock that she would now be fighting an unfathomable battle. After all, this was Nora, our go-hard, go-fast, ray of sunshine. Never did we imagine anything could get her down. But yet, here we were.

Cassie

In April 2023, I started to notice that I was having trouble breathing. I was a perfectly healthy 34-year-old woman who did kickboxing three times a week and was very physically active. I ended up going to a doctor who, for three months, misdiagnosed me with asthma and acid reflux. After about three visits to his office, I was crying to him, begging to be referred to a specialist. I really felt that there was something wrong with me that wasn't asthma.

Subaru Loves to Care

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) is partnering with Subaru and its retailers to spread hope, love, and warmth to blood cancer patients and their families for the sixth consecutive year. As part of Subaru Loves to Care, we’re providing information on free education and support services from LLS to those fighting blood cancers across the country.

Treatment

It's important that your doctor is experienced in treating patients with acute leukemia or has access to an acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) specialist.

Doctors use several types of approaches and treatment combinations for ALL:

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. 

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.