Research Paper on Leukemia

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Over one million Americans in the United States are living with or have been diagnosed with leukemia. That’s a big amount of people. I chose to do my research paper on leukemia because two years ago I lost my grandma to the cancer. I wanted to know more about the disease and what was happening to her. I researched the different types, risk factors, symptoms, treatment, and what kind of research is being done to help cure leukemia. Leukemia is a cancer of the blood cells that start in the bone marrow. During leukemia the bone marrow starts to make a lot of abnormal white blood cells or “leukemia cells”. There are four main different types of leukemia. It is grouped by how fast it spreads and what kind of white blood cell it affects. The group of how fast leukemia spreads is either acute or chronic. Acute leukemia gets worse faster and may make a person feel sick right away. Where chronic leukemia gets worse slowly and may not cause symptoms for years. The group of what kind of blood cells leukemia affects is either lymphatic or myelogenous. Lymphatic leukemia affects white blood cells called lymphocytes. Where myelogenous leukemia affects white blood cells called myelocytes. When the two groups come together they form four main types of leukemia. They are acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), chronic lymphoblastic leukemia (CLL), and chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). Each type is different in its own way but experts still don’t know for sure what causes leukemia. Even though there are no known causes of leukemia there are still risk factors that may cause the disease. Some include large amounts of radiation, certain chemicals, down syndrome or other genetic problems, and smoking. Some types of... ... middle of paper ... ...ment. They are also trying to find new ways to improve the quality of life. Another way is by testing new targeted therapy, biological therapy, and chemotherapy. Lastly they are trying various combinations of treatment to find the perfect one that will hopefully cure leukemia forever. I chose to do my research project on leukemia because that is the type of cancer I lost my grandma to. I wanted to know more about the disease because I was confused about it and when we would talk about it I didn’t understand what everyone was saying. I learned about what leukemia is and how to treat it. I also learned what the different types of leukemia are, the risk factors, symptoms, and what research is being done to cure leukemia. I am really glad I did leukemia for my project because now I know what my grandma had to go through and kind of feel closer to her now.

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