Leukemia has several different types which can affect people in different ways. The disease is grouped in a couple of different ways. First, the disease is grouped by how quickly it develops in the body and how fast it becomes worse. Second, the type of leukemia from which a patient is suffering is determined by the type of blood cell the disease affects.

Acute and Chronic Leukemia

Leukemia may be either acute or chronic in form. In acute leukemia, the abnormal cancer cells are blasts, which are immature or young blood cells. These blasts can’t carry out the normal functions that mature cells can do, and they increase in number rapidly. In chronic leukemia, some blood cells remain blasts, but others become more mature cells that can still carry out some normal functions. Chronic leukemia cases progress gradually, and a patient may experience very mild symptoms that will get worse over time.

Leukemia can affect either lymphoid cells or myeloid cells. When leukemia affects the lymphoid cells, it is called lymphotic leukemia. When it affects the myeloid cells, it is called myelogenous leukemia. Acute lymphotic leukemia, or ALL, can affect young children and adults, while acute myelogenous leukemia can affect people of all different age groups. Chronic lymphotic leukemia affects mostly adults and hardly ever affects young children. Chronic myelogenous leukemia also affects mainly adults, but can affect children, as well.

Specialized blood tests can diagnose the different types of leukemia. Although scientists can determine if a patient has leukemia by studying a blood sample under a microscope, they cannot determine what type of leukemia it is without running further tests. While acute forms of leukemia can often be treated and cured with aggressive treatment, chronic forms of leukemia are rarely completely cured. Chronic types of leukemia may respond well to treatment, but patients may never completely recover from the disease.

If you are diagnosed with any type of leukemia, whether acute or chronic, finding out as much information as you can will make it easier to understand the disease and how it works. This may make dealing with the disease easier for patients.