Acute lymphocytic leukemia ALL is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. ALL is the most common childhood cancer. Children younger than age 5 have the highest risk. It can also occur in adults. Most types of ALL can be treated with a good chance of remission in children. Having ALL increases your chances of bleeding and developing infections. The symptoms and signs of ALL may also include:. According to a study from , Japanese survivors of the atomic bomb in World War II had an increased risk of acute leukemia six to eight years after exposure. A follow-up study reinforced the connection between atomic bomb exposure and the risk of developing leukemia. Studies done in the s showed that fetuses exposed to radiation, such as in X-rays , within the first months of development present an increased risk for ALL.

Stages of Adult Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
Epidemiology, Etiology, Clinical Presentation, and Diagnosis
Adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia ALL; also called acute lymphocytic leukemia is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. This type of cancer usually gets worse quickly if it is not treated. Normally, the bone marrow makes blood stem cells immature cells that become mature blood cells over time. A blood stem cell may become a myeloid stem cell or a lymphoid stem cell. A lymphoid stem cell becomes a lymphoblast cell and then one of three types of lymphocytes white blood cells :. These cells are also called leukemia cells. These leukemia cells are not able to fight infection very well.
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Acute lymphocytic or lymphoblastic leukemia is sometimes called ALL. It starts in the bone marrow where blood cells are made. It is more common in children than in adults. Get an overview of acute lymphocytic leukemia and the latest key statistics in the US. Learn about the risk factors for acute lymphocytic leukemia and if there are things you might be able to do to help lower your risk. Know the signs and symptoms of acute lymphocytic leukemia.
Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia ALL , a clonal expansion of hematopoietic blasts, is a highly heterogeneous disease comprising many entities for which distinct treatment strategies are pursued. Although ALL is a success story in pediatric oncology, results in adults lag behind those in children. An expansion of new drugs, more reliable immunologic and molecular techniques for the assessment of minimal residual disease, and efforts at more precise risk stratification are generating new aspects of adult ALL therapy. For this review, the authors summarized pertinent and recent literature on ALL biology and therapy, and they discuss current strategies and potential implications of novel approaches to the management of adult ALL. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia ALL remains 1 of the most challenging adult malignancies, especially with respect to therapy. Immunophenotyping, cytogenetic-molecular studies, and, more recently, high-resolution genome-wide screening are characterizing ALL as a heterogeneous disease with distinct manifestations and prognostic and therapeutic implications. Instead, the ongoing molecular dissection of subtypes, the refinement of mulitagent chemotherapy and development of new and targeted drugs, the elaboration of risk-adapated therapies and reassessment of transplantation indications, comprehension of the kinetics of residual disease, and an increasing grasp of the impact of pharmacogenomics and drug resistance are the mainstays of up-to-date management, and are expected to contribute to improvements in the prognosis of adult ALL. Clinical manifestations at presentation include constitutional symptoms fevers, night sweats, weight loss , easy bruising or bleeding, dyspnea, dizziness, and infections.