Bibliography

• University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center. Leukemia. 1999 U. of Pennsylvania Cancer Center. Feb 12,2009 http://www.faqs.org/health/Sick-V3/Leukemia.html

• Medicinenet. Leukemia 2009. Feb 12,2009. <http://www.medicinenet.com/leukemia/article.htm>

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Causes of Leukemia

• Radiations such as X rays and ultraviolet (UV) light can be found in sunlight. Radiations tear chemicals apart in your body and destroy cells.

• Carcinogen causes Leukemia by damaging cells and other substances. Carcinogen also causes cancer.

• Leukemia can be caused genetically.

Symptoms• Weakness or chronic fatigue• Fever of unknown origin• Unexplained weight loss• Frequent bacterial or viral infections• Skin rash• Bone pain with no known cause• Easy bruising• Bleeding from gums and nose• Blood in urine or stools• Enlarged lymph nodes and/or spleen

Impact of Condition on life of patient

• Prognosis: people with leukemia get infections easily and they should take antibiotics and other drugs to prevent them from infections.

• In 1960, the 5-year survival rate for all types of leukemia was about 14%. It has now increased to about 50%.

The Pathology of Acute Leukemia

-Mutations occur in the genes responsible for creating white blood cells.

-This causes immature and useless cells called blasts to accumulate in the bone marrow.

-Because the blasts crowd out normal cells, the marrow stops making normal blood cells.

-Because of this the body is unable to fight infections, stop bleeding and get enough oxygen to the tissues.

-If left untreated, the patient will die within a few weeks.

NormalAL • Aster, Jon. Personal Communication, Interview, 2/10/09

• The current treatment for most leukemias is to be put on chemotherapy (poison) in which the patient takes a cocktail of drugs that kills cancer cells (but also normal cells.

• In one form of acute leukemia (acute promyelocytic leukemia), differentiation therapy is used instead

Treatments for LeukemiaVitamin AVitamin A

(all-trans retinoic acid)(all-trans retinoic acid)

My idea: identify new drugs to make other kinds of acuteleukemias differentiate