Leukemia's Effect on Blood Cells

Leukemia comes from the Greek word meaning "white blood". It is a combination of several conditions that affect the immature blood forming cells in the bone marrow. It also makes the body produce large amounts of white cells.

Cells

• Blood has three major cell groups, white blood cells, platelets and red blood cells. They all come from immature cells and normally they do their job, die and new cells form.

Bone Marrow

• Bone marrow is the interior of the bone. This is where blood forms from healthy cells.

White Blood Cells

• White blood cells are the infection-fighting cells in the body. With leukemia you will see neutropenia (low amounts of mature bacteria-fighting white cells) and leukopenia (low amounts of normal white cells).

Red Blood Cells

• Red blood cells are the oxygen carrying cells. With leukemia often comes anemia (a low number of red blood cells in the blood).

Platelets

• Platelets are the clotting cells. With leukemia you will see thrombocytopenia (low platelet levels) and thrombocytosis (high platelet levels).

Risk factors

• Some risk factors for developing leukemia are smoking, radiation, chemotherapy and long term exposure to workplace chemicals like formaldehyde.