What is acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)?
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common type of leukemia, a cancer of the blood, in teenagers and younger children. We can get some information about this type of cancer from the different parts of its name.
- Acute means quick or short. ALL usually develops quickly and can get worse quickly if it is not treated.
- Lymphoblastic comes from the name of the cell that ALL comes from. Remember that leukemia starts with a mutation or change in the DNA of the immature blood cell. In ALL, this mutation is in the cell that would normally mature into a specific white blood cell called the lymphocyte (say: lim-foe-sites). The new, mutated cell is called a lymphoblast or leukemic blast.
- In leukemia, the lymphoblasts do not mature and so they cannot do the job of the white blood cell, which is to fight infection. The mutation causes them to divide out of control and so the lymphoblasts fill up the bone marrow and stop the bone marrow from making healthy blood cells.
Types of ALL
Normally, healthy lymphocytes help fight infection in our body. There are two types of lymphocytes, B-cells (B-lymphocytes) and T-cells (T-lymphocytes). ALL can develop in either of these cells.
- B-cell ALL is caused when DNA changes occur in young lymphoblasts that would normally mature into B-lymphocytes. This is the most common type of ALL.
- T-cell is when DNA changes occur in young lymphoblasts that would normally mature into T-lymphocytes.
Knowing which type of ALL you have helps the doctor plan your treatment.
Symptoms of ALL
Symptoms are signals from the body that something is wrong. When you have ALL, symptoms might include:
- fever, because your body does not have enough white blood cells to fight infection or because of the leukemia itself
- feeling tired, weak and not hungry
- feeling like you can’t catch your breath when you exercise, because you do not have enough red blood cells to carry oxygen to your body when you need it
- looking pale, because you do not have enough red blood cells
- bruising or bleeding easily, because you do not have enough platelets to make a scab
- swollen lymph nodes, liver or spleen - these are parts of your lymphatic system, where leukemia cells can grow and divide
- bone pain
If you have any questions about your type of ALL, what it means, your treatment or anything else about your cancer, ask someone on your health-care team. Your doctors and nurses want to help you understand.
