In a layman’s language, leukemia is blood cancer or the cancer of bone marrow in which the white cells increase abnormally. These white blood cells are manufactured in the bones of the body and are responsible for protecting the body against infections. White blood cells are of two types: myeloid and lymphocytes. In this cancer, some of the white blood cells stay in the bone marrow, multiply abnormally and prevent the growth of other blood cells in a healthy manner. This leaves the body too weak to fight infections, develops anemia, or bleed uncontrollably for a small cut. Leukemia chemotherapy is one of the methods to overcome this deadly disease.

Types of Leukemia

Acute Leukemia: In this type of leukemia there is a rapid multiplication of the immature blood cells in the bone marrow, which makes it very difficult for the bone marrow to produce healthy cells. If this condition is not treated immediately and at an early stage, it can become life threatening. It is very common in young children.

Chronic Leukemia: This type of leukemia develops slowly as it involves the development of relatively mature cells that are abnormal. This type of leukemia might take months or years to develop and is more common in adults. This type of cancer is usually monitored over a period of time as it helps a doctor to decide on the line of treatment for cancer.

Chemotherapy Treatment of Leukemia

Chemotherapy is said to be an effective treatment for chemotherapy. Drugs can be administered alone or in combination with other approved drugs. Your physician will determine the chemotherapy regime. This regimen involves three stages:

1. The first step involves induction. The goal of this stage is remission. This means that the chemotherapy drugs are aimed at destroying as many cancer cells as possible that are present in the blood stream.
2. During the next stage of consolidation, the primary aim is to destroy any cancerous cell that might be present but cannot be detected. If these cells start multiplying, then there are chances for the cancer to relapse.
3. The next step is called maintenance. This is the long term goal of chemotherapy. In this stage, the lower dosage of chemotherapy is usually given as compared to the first or second stage. It is used for ALL (acute lymphocytic leukemia) patients.

The chemotherapy treatment for leukemia can be given orally; by injecting the drug into a vein; by inserting a catheter directly into the vein; by injecting the patient into the cerebrospinal fluid; or by injecting the drug into the spine.

Before starting the chemotherapy treatment for leukemia, the doctors usually recommend a bone marrow test. This test is repeated a few weeks after starting the treatment to find out the response of a patient to the chemotherapy drugs. This is done because every patient responds to these medicines in a different manner. These days, the researchers are being done for using the genetic information from a person’s cells to determine which drug would suit a patient.

There are many ways to treat leukemia like, bone marrow, chemotherapy, ATRA (all-trans retinoic acid) and other methods. Your doctor will determine the best treatment for you. A chemotherapy treatment usually lasts for a long time. So instead of injecting a patient with needles several times, the doctors insert a catheter inside a vein that leads to the heart. This can be placed near the heart or in the front of the elbow. If the family members can learn how to keep this catheter clean, it can remain there for many weeks or even months. This can be done for day patients.

Treatment for AML (acute myeloid leukemia): The dosage is quite strong and the treatment usually lasts a week, followed by a break of about three to four weeks. The patients are usually given a combination of Cytarabine and an anthracycline drugs (like idarubicin and daunorubicin). The doctors ensure that the cancerous cells become less and subsequently go away (i.e remission). After the first stage of remission, follows the phase of consolidation and subsequently by the maintenance.

Treatment for ALL: The treatment for ALL usually lasts for about six months. In the first cycle of chemotherapy, the patients are given a combination of several drugs. Then they have chemotherapy for about six months. Depending on the stage of the cancer, the chemotherapy treatment might last for about another 18 months. The drug can be given intravenously or orally. Some of the drugs that are usually used in the treatment of ALL are: etoposide, daunorubicin, methotrexate, amsacrine, amsacrine, amsacrine, thioguanine, teniposide, doxorubicin, and many others. Your doctor will decide the drugs to be given to you and the duration of your chemotherapy treatment.

The chemotherapy regimen has many side effects like low anemia and a low count of white blood cells and blood platelets. Many patients require blood transfusions, and dosage of antibiotics. Some might even require intravenous nutrition. There might be other side effects of chemotherapy. Before you start with your treatment, do ask your doctor if you have any doubts or questions related to chemotherapy.

Although leukemia chemotherapy offers the patients a new hope of life, there are various factors that affect the prognosis (chances of recover). This depends on the various factors like: age of the patient, type of leukemia and the stage of leukemia, past medical history of the patient, past exposure to chemotherapy and others factors. However, the doctors and researchers are striving hard to find the best possible cure and treating leukemia with chemotherapy is one of them.