Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia? Diagnosis, Symptoms, And Treatment

So What Is Chronic lymphocytic leukemia?

Well CLL stands for ‘chronic lymphocytic leukemia’ And if it is the first time that you come across this disease, it is a name that sounds quite scary. Leukemia simply refers to these cells that involve the blood, so when we do blood tests, we find them in people. Leukemias are, of course, a type of cancer, so it’s a bit of a difficult start for new patients but let me tell you about the disease and try to reassure you a little from the beginning. It is a cancer of the white blood cells and of a particular blood cell called B lymphocyte.

That is a smart cell that makes our antibodies and is a key part of our immune system.
But we know that sometimes, as people get older, the control of these cells can get a little bit lacking, and sometimes patients can produce too many of these B lymphocytes and as these lymphocytes grow in number, as they appear in the peripheral blood, that is in the blood that we can analyze in the clinic, patients often feel completely fine and that is the strange thing about chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Diagnosis Of  Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

You can be diagnosed with this condition and feel absolutely normal. and then of course it is really shocking to the patient, his family, and friends because one minute they were completely fine and the next minute their doctor talks about leukemia. But it is very important to understand that for many chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients, it is found by chance and it actually changes very slowly over the years. So aside from observing it, well, many patients often don’t need a lot of treatment. As hematologists, we are commonly asked.

What Is The Difference Between CLL and SLL?

Well, SLL stands for small lymphocytic lymphoma, it seems a bit confusing, and even to our medical students, it takes five minutes to make sure we are clear on the difference. It is a disease caused by the same type of cell, but the cells live in different parts of the body.

So while chronic lymphocytic leukemia, chronic lymphocytic leukemia is primarily a blood disease, so the cells move between the blood and the bone marrow and sometimes also affect the lymph nodes. SLL, which is a small lymphocytic lymphoma, is the same type of cells but these like to live in the lymph nodes.

So,  small lymphocytic lymphoma patients commonly present with swollen lymph nodes, perhaps around the neck, groin, or armpits, but they don’t actually have the cells floating in their blood. So unlike chronic lymphocytic leukemia, where we commonly see high lymphocyte counts in the blood, most patients with SLL have a normal white blood cell count. But otherwise, they are the same disease and treated with the same different regimens. and we expect most of our patients to have very long periods of good health.

Symptoms Of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

Now, not everyone is so lucky with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, of course. We have talked about how many patients have very few symptoms, But chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients may gradually get worse with their condition. chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients can sometimes become more prone to infections, particularly chest infections or sinus infections, sometimes need special rotating antibiotics, even immunoglobulin infusions.

They are a special help that can be provided if chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients are particularly affected by chest infections. Patients can also get more tired and this really is a difficult symptom for many patients. this deep lethargy that is not relieved by rest. Sometimes that is a bad enough symptom for people to get treatment. Other symptoms may include night sweats, sometimes these can become severe enough again to affect someone’s quality of life because they just can’t get enough sleep, And of course,t it can feed tiredness. Patients can lose weight.

Some patients may develop more troublesome lymph nodes. Those are not only aesthetically disturbing but are actually urgent and quite uncomfortable for them. Sometimes the spleen can become enlarged, and in the same way, an enlarged spleen can put pressure on the stomach, sometimes people just don’t feel like eating and that can contribute to weight loss. So you can see how all these symptoms can gradually build up over time.

Often, in chronic lymphocytic leukemia, they can coincide with patients who develop a higher b-blood cell count and as the white blood cell count increases, often in the bone marrow, which is the normal blood factory, this bone marrow doesn’t work that well so patients become more anemic, meaning they don’t have enough red blood cells floating around to carry the oxygen.

Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Treatment

People within the staging system with the primary stage unwellness or stage zero unwellness merely have associate elevated leucocyte count, so Are white count cell counts not increasing? and they simply stage one lymphocyte disease and that we have 5 stages here start with zero which can be a bit confusing.

However, goes from zero to four then the second stage or stage one is people ar folks that have humor lymph node involvement in order that the lymphoid tissues are enlarged and might discover themselves or the doctor might discover in a very time of designation those patients they conjointly sometimes have associate elevation within the

white count cell count Stage 2 unwellness or folks to expand their liver and/or spleen, therefore you’ve got legal lymphocytes within the spleen of the liver and that ar huge stage three unwellness for the folks that are naming hemoprotein is less than ten and unwellness states or patients.

WHO have low platelets or they’re thrombocytopenic, your plaque counts less to 100,000 in contrast to most things in medicine staging systems truly it’s gotten a bit less complicated currently there and Rai changed is that the one who came of the staging system, therefore, a changed increase staging system that takes stage zero patience with a blood disease or an increased leucocyte count and calls.

Them low risk that is concerning forty p.c of people at the time of designation and the median survival of that cluster is kind of well it’s over twelve years and since it has been a group of patients, several of those patients die with their unwellness, not from your unwellness which is extremely vital differentiation that a lot of patients say,

I have leukemia that you just have detected of who ne’er received treatment most of those patients in all probability had chronic lymphocytic leukemia and had Cell’s stage one within the unwellness has been sorted together in associate intermediate-risk cluster which constitutes another four-hundredth of solar power patients at the time of designation and their average survival isn’t six or eight.

Range of years that a lot of of those patients require some treatment over time, but can do not need treatment at first and either gift with associate enlarged humor lymph nodes and order liver spleen or an enlarged and so the high-risk cluster what is the cluster of stage 3 or four people who have blood counts are your traditional blood cells

Impacted, these folks represent around 2 hundredth diagnostic which extremely impacts your unwellness if you do not treat them very sharply your average survival is only within the 2 to 3 year vary so this is often the cluster that receives treatment initially, as we’ll observe a small amount a little later, therefore.

I Feel Seeing You Can Confirm However Folks Gift Themselves?

So around four-hundredth of the folk’s gift solely elevated lymphocytes concerning four-hundredth of elevated lymphocytes and have enlarged humor nodes or liver and spleen and most of them are quite symptomless except that they feel some enlargement might have a small large liver abdominal fullness spleen.

However, they’re sometimes quite asymptomatic and at higher risk folks with the vale, the clot will present with weakness and fatigue from anemia or they’ll have some bruising and hemorrhage from below platelet count