What’s the difference between chronic and acute leukemia?
Leukemia is grouped in 2 ways. It may be acute or chronic, depending upon how fast the cells grow and progress to more advanced phases of the disease and how much the leukemia cells resemble normal cells. The disease is also lymphoid or myeloid, depending upon the type of white blood cell that has turned into cancer. Here is more information about acute and chronic types of leukemia. Acute leukemia: The bad blood cells are immature cells, called blasts, which cannot do their job. The number of these cells increases fast. The disease will quickly get worse unless it is treated. Chronic leukemia: Some young blood cells are present, but the body also makes more mature, functional cells. The number of blasts grows slowly. It takes a longer time for the disease to get worse. Sometimes the disease remains stable for many months or even years, even without treatment.
