What is Leukemia (Blood Cancer)?
Leukemia starts in the soft, inner part of the bones (bone marrow), but often moves quickly into the blood. It can then spread to other parts of the body, such as the lymph nodes, spleen, liver, central nervous system and other organs. Both children and adults can get leukemia, which is a complex disease with many different types and subtypes. Bone marrow is the soft, spongy, inner part of bones. All of the different types of blood cells are made in the bone marrow. Bone marrow includes blood-forming cells, fat cells and tissues that aid the growth of blood cells. Early blood cells are called stem cells which grow in an orderly process to produce red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. There are three main types of white blood cells – granulocytes, monocytes and lymphocytes. Any of the blood-forming or lymphoid cells can turn into a leukemic cell. Once that happens, the cell reproduces to form many new cancer cells. Eventually, these cells can overwhelm the bone marrow, spill
