About the Diseases

Leukemia
Leukemia* is a malignant disease (cancer) of the bone marrow and blood. It is characterized by the uncontrolled accumulation of blood cells. Leukemia is divided into four categories: myelogenous or lymphocytic, each of which can be acute or chronic. The terms myelogenous or lymphocytic denote the cell type involved. Thus, the four major types of leukemia are:

• Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia
• Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia
• Acute Myelogenous Leukemia
• Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia

Acute leukemia is a rapidly progressing disease that results in the accumulation of immature, functionless cells in the marrow and blood. The marrow often can no longer produce enough normal red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. Anemia, a deficiency of red cells, develops in virtually all leukemia patients. The lack of normal white cells impairs the body's ability to fight infections. A shortage of platelets results in bruising and easy bleeding.

Chronic leukemia progresses more slowly and allows greater numbers of more mature, functional cells to be made.

More information about leukemia can be found at www.lls.org/leukemia

Lymphoma
Lymphoma* is a general term for a group of cancers that originates in the lymphatic system. Lymphoma results when a lymphocyte (a type of white blood cell) undergoes a malignant change and begins to multiply, eventually crowding out healthy cells and creating tumors which enlarge the lymph nodes or other sites in the body. Fifty-seven percent of blood cancers are lymphomas.

Non-Hodgkin lymphoma represents a diverse group of cancers, with the distinctions between types based on the characteristics of the cancerous cells. The groups are often classified as indolent or aggressive, low, intermediate and high grade. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma is a group of diseases and not just one type. Each histologic grouping is diagnosed and treated differently, and each has prognostic factors that categorize it as more or less favorable.

Hodgkin lymphoma is a specialized form of lymphoma and represents about 12.7 percent of all lymphomas diagnosed each year. Hodgkin lymphoma has characteristics that distinguish it from all other cancers of the lymphatic system: including the presence of an abnormal cell called the Reed-Sternberg cell (a large, malignant cell found in Hodgkin lymphoma tissues), incidence rates higher in adolescents and young adults and cure rates of more than 84 percent.

More information about lymphoma can be found at www.lls.org/lymphoma

Myeloma
Myeloma* is a cancer of plasma cells, a type of white blood cell found in many tissues of the body, but primarily in the bone marrow. In myeloma, a a plasma cell becomes malignant. In myeloma, a plasma cell becomes malignant. It grows continuously, especially in the marrow, destroying normal bone tissue, causing pain, and crowding out normal blood cell production. Normally, plasma cells are formed from B lymphocytes.

Malignant plasma cells produce an abnormal protein called monoclonal immunoglobulin. Normal immunoglobulins (or antibodies) are an important part of the body's natural defense against infection since they recognize microbes that invade the body and permit them to be removed and destroyed. The monoclonal immunoglobulin made by myeloma cells is functionless. The onset of myeloma interferes with normal production of immunoglobulins (antibodies) and makes myeloma patients susceptible to infections.

More information about myeloma can be found at www.lls.org/myeloma