How many different kinds of leukemia are there?

Answer 1

Chronic and Acute. Chronic worsens slowly, acute worsens quickly. Chronic leukemias are Chronic Lymphoblasitc Leukemia andChronic Myeloid Leukemia. Acute leukemias are Acute Lymphoblastice Leukemia and Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

Answer 2

Chronic Leukemia's

in chronic leukemia, the leukemia cells come from mature, abnormal cells. The cells thrive for too long and accumulate. The cells grow slowly.

Acute Leukemia's

acute leukemia, on the other hand, develops from early cells, called "blasts". Blasts are young cells that divide frequently. In acute leukemia cells, they don't stop dividing like their normal counterparts do.

The remaining two types refer to the type of cells in which the leukemia started from.

Myelogenous Leukemia

Myelogenous leukemia develops from myeloid cells. The disease can either be chronic or acute, referred as chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), or acute myelogenous leukemia (ALL).

Lymphocytic Leukemia

Lymphocytic leukemia develops from cells called lymphoblasts or lymphocytes in the blood marrow. The disease can be acute or chronic, referred as chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), or acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL).

Answer 3

Leukemia is the general term used to describe a number of malignant diseases where the blood-forming organs produce increased numbers of leucocytes. Leucocytes are the colorless cells in blood and lymph etc. and which are important in fighting disease. CHRONIC AND ACUTE: In broad terms, leukemia is classified according to how fast it progresses: * In Chronic leukemia the cells develop slowly and the patient's condition gradually deteriorates over the years. * In Acute leukemia the blood-forming cells reproduce and accumulate very rapidly. If not treated quickly, death can ensue within a few months. TYPES There are about a dozen or so different types of leukemia classified according to the specific type of white/clear blood cell that is multiplying abnormally.

Main cell types affected and the term used for leukemic conditions of those cells: * Bone marrow lymphocytes (immune system cells) > lymphocytic leukemia. [cancers of other lymphocyte cells which develop in lymph nodes, spleen and organs other than bone marrow, are called lymphomas. These types of cancerous cells behave differently from those described as lymphocytic leukemias] * If either the granulocytes(bacteria-destroying cells) or the monocytes(macrophage-forming cells, i.e. large white cells which engulf foreign matter) are affected > myelogenous, or myeloid, leukemia. There are four possible permutations of the above classifications, and are the most common types of leukemia:

# Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) # Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML) # Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL) # Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) SUB-TYPES Medical science then identifies further sub-types, according to cancerous cell characteristics/features. * AML: To represent eight sub-types of AML the French-American-British classification system uses symbols M0, M1, M2 etc * CML is sub-classified according to three phases of development, 'chronic', 'accelerated' and 'blast' phases. * ALL is identified by the source of the cell, e.g. from the bone-marrow source being called ALL (B-cell), thymus-sourced being ALL (T-cell) etc. And the appearance of the cell falls into one of three L (Lymphocoytic) types, known as L-1, L-2 or L-3. * CLL is classified by staging, i.e. the stage the cancer has reached, as determined by cell appearance. There can be three or five stages, depending on which classification system is used. MORE DETAIL

Chronic leukemias can be further differentiated. e.g hairy cell leukemia (HCL), prolymphocytic leukemia (PLL), T-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (T-CLL), and chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML). Of course it is possible to further differentiate the type of leukemia by identifying the specific DNA displacement/malfunction that is causing a particular cell to be malignant and which is being perpetuated in cell development and reproduction. For more information see Related links below this box.

Answer 4

There are 4 types of leukemia, they are: Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL), Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML), Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL), Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML).