Leukaemias are cancers of the blood or bone marrow. But how do they form, and can they be treated?
Types of leukaemia
Most leukaemias are either myeloid or lymphocytic/lymphoblastic, depending on which cells they affect, and can be either chronic or acute.
Age of onset
Most leukaemia occurs in the elderly, but there is a separate, smaller peak in childhood.
Cell type
At every step in the differentiation process, the range of fates available to a progenitor cell narrows. Leukaemias can occur at any stage in this process. See Fig. 1.
Treatment timeline
Important advances in the treatment of leukaemia.
5-year survivability in the United States
The likelihood of surviving with leukaemia for 5 years has been increasing steadily for more than 30 years as treatments have improved.
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Elert, E. Living with leukaemia. Nature 498, S2–S3 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/498S2a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/498S2a
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