In commentary of Leukemia Consciousness Month in September, CURE spoke with an professional about fundamentals of the illness.
In commentary of Leukemia Consciousness Month in September, CURE spoke with an professional about fundamentals of the illness, together with its earliest warning indicators and signs and the way remedy of the illness has developed lately.
Dr. Firas El Chaer, chief of Leukemia and medical director of Infusion Companies at Baptist Well being Miami Most cancers Institute, sat down for the interview with CURE.
What are the earliest warning indicators and signs of leukemia?
Leukemia impacts blood cells, notably the white blood cell rely, the pink blood cell rely and the platelet and subsequently, the affected person can develop signs and indicators which are associated to both very excessive ranges of those blood counts or very low ranges. As an illustration, if the pink blood cell rely goes down very low, the affected person can undergo from excessive fatigue, weak spot, chest ache and shortness of breath. And if the platelet rely goes down, the affected person can develop bleeding in addition to bruising. Often these are simple bruising or extreme bleeding. These are early indicators of a disturbed blood rely. Not solely that, if the white blood cell rely could be very low, the sufferers have elevated threat of recurrent and extreme infections. These are primarily the primary signs and indicators of leukemia because it impacts the blood ranges.
How has leukemia analysis and remedy developed lately, and what developments do you may have your eye on for sufferers at the moment?
The remedy of leukemia has developed enormously previously decade or so. Earlier to that, there have been only a few medication which we may use to deal with leukemia, they usually largely relied on old fashioned chemotherapy. We nonetheless undoubtedly use these. They’re a part of the spine of the remedy for leukemia; nonetheless, previously few years, we began to find many particular genes which are drivers of the leukemia, and subsequently we develop medication that may goal these genes particularly.
So the remedy panorama has developed quite a bit previously few years to incorporate these medication along with the old fashioned chemotherapy, not solely that, we’ve got now lighter chemotherapy that can be utilized to deal with leukemia, that may provide the affected person a greater tolerance to chemotherapy and can enable them to take pleasure in some good high quality of life whereas they’re getting remedy.
Lots of the remedies today are mixture remedies, so you utilize a number of medication to focus on a number of pathways and the most cancers pathway, and that may assist stop any emergence of resistance, in addition to sooner remedy of leukemia.
Is there something you wish to add about what remedy choices are presently obtainable for the totally different sorts of leukemia, and the way medical doctors decide which strategy is greatest for every affected person?
There are numerous kinds of leukemia, and relying on every sort, the remedy strategy could be very totally different. I wish to focus that quite a lot of the brand new remedies for leukemia deal with focused remedy, whether or not it’s an oral tablet given to the affected person that may management the illness, or it may be an intravenous or subcutaneous injection that’s given to the affected person to manage the most cancers. And people injections, normally they management the most cancers by focusing on particular antigens or proteins on the cell floor of the leukemia cell, and subsequently, these medication can management the leukemia far more effectively and in a fashion that’s far more particular, sparing the sufferers from unwanted side effects that might have an effect on different cells within the physique. These kind of chemotherapy, we name them immunotherapy, as effectively, they’ll probably harness the immune system to manage the most cancers, which has been one of many main advances in most cancers care.
Transcript has been edited for readability and conciseness.
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