Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia Symptoms

Acute promyelocytic cancer is a subset of leukemia, appearing most often in children. Unlike some cancers, which originate in a specific body part, leukemia can originate anywhere in the bone marrow or blood stream of the body.

Leukemia

• Leukemia is cancer of the bone marrow or the soft squishy center of the bone. The cancer often spreads from the bone marrow to the blood stream to other body parts.

What is Acute Myelogenous Leukemia?

• Before discussing promyelocytic leukemia, patients must understand acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is. In 2008, it was expected that 13,290 Americans would be diagnosed with AML. The older a person becomes, the more likely they are to develop this sort of leukemia. However, this type of leukemia can occur at any age. Currently, it is estimated that one in five children with leukemia have AML. Like all other forms of leukemia, this cancer begins in the bone marrow through the growth of cancerous cells called blast cells.

Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia

• Acute promyelocytic leukemia, or APL, is a subtype of AML, identified as AML-M3. APL is also the most curable subtype of AML, according to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. APL is characterized by a type of white blood cell that becomes heavily granulated in patients with this condition. Statistics on this type of leukemia reveal that approximately 50 children out of 500 that are diagnosed with AML have APL. Therefore, APL represents an estimated 1% of childhood leukemia. Additionally, the numbers show that APL typically affects more people of Hispanic and Mediterranean origin. APL is also found more frequently in children between the age of two and three and in adults over 40. However, this is not to say that individuals of any age are not susceptible to developing this type of leukemia; APL has been seen in many teenagers as well.

Symptoms

• Due to the fact that APL is simply a subtype of AML, both conditions have the same symptoms, some of which include tiredness, no energy, shortness of breath during physical activity, pale skin, swollen gums, and the slow healing of cuts and bruises. Other symptoms that can appear include small red spots under the skin, extensive bleeding from a minor wound, mild fever, bruise-like marks that appear without cause, and aches in the bones, knees, hips, or shoulders.

Treatment

• APL is the most curable subtype of AML. Patients with APL are treated with one of the substances that comprises Vitamin A. This substance is known as all-trans retinoic acid, or ATRA. Combined with chemotherapy, this treatment has proven to be extremely effective at putting the leukemia into remission. Should the cancer reappear, the patient is then administered an arsenic treatment known as arsenic trioxide or ATO.