What is acute lymphocytic leukemia ?
Leukemia is a term for cancers of the blood cells. Leukemia starts in blood-forming tissues such as the bone marrow. Your bone marrow makes the cells which will develop into white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. When you have leukemia, your bone marrow makes large numbers of abnormal cells. This problem most often happens with white blood cells. These abnormal cells build up in your bone marrow and blood. They crowd out the healthy blood cells and make it hard for your cells and blood to do their work.

Acute lymphocytic leukemia is a type of acute leukemia. It's also called ALL and acute lymphoblastic leukemia. "Acute" means that it usually gets worse quickly if it's not treated. ALL is the most common type of cancer in children. It can also affect adults.

In ALL, the bone marrow makes too many lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell. These cells normally help your body fight infection. But in ALL, they are abnormal and cannot fight infection very well. They also crowd out the healthy cells, which can lead to infection, anemia, and easy bleeding. These abnormal cells can also spread to other parts of the body, including the brain and spinal cord.

Acute lymphocytic leukemia symptoms
The signs and symptoms of ALL include:
● Weakness or feeling tired
● Fever or night sweats
● Easy bruising or bleeding
● Petechiae, which are tiny red dots under the skin. They are caused by bleeding.
● Shortness of breath
● Weight loss or loss of appetite
● Pain in the bones or stomach
● Pain or feeling of fullness below the ribs
● Swollen lymph nodes - you may notice them as painless lumps in the neck, underarm, stomach, or groin
● Having had many infections

Acute lymphocytic leukemia occurs when a bone marrow cell develops changes (mutations) in its genetic material or DNA. A cell's DNA contains the instructions that tell a cell what to do. Normally, the DNA tells the cell to grow at a set rate and to die at a set time. In acute lymphocytic leukemia, the mutations tell the bone marrow cell to continue growing and dividing. When this happens, blood cell production becomes out of control. The bone marrow produces immature cells that develop into leukemic white blood cells called lymphoblasts. These abnormal cells are unable to function properly, and they can build up and crowd out healthy cells.

ALL happens when there are changes in the genetic material (DNA) in bone marrow cells. The cause of these genetic changes is unknown. However, there are certain factors that raise your risk of ALL.
The factors that raise your risk of ALL include:
● Being male
● Being white
● Being over age 70
● Having had chemotherapy or radiation therapy
● Having been exposed to high levels of radiation
● Having certain genetic disorders, such as Down syndrome

Environmental factors, Extensive research has been done to determine whether the following environmental factors could be a trigger for leukaemia:
1) living near a nuclear power station
2) living near a power line
3) living near a building or facility that releases electro-magnetic radiation, such as a mobile phone mast

ALL is generally staged based on your WBC count at the time of diagnosis. ALL is found in immature WBCs and spreads rapidly. ALL is found in both adults and children.
Children with ALL are staged by risk group. There are two risk groups for childhood ALL:
1) Low risk. Children under age 10 with a WBC count of less than 50,000 are considered low risk. Children generally have a higher ALL survival rate than adults. Additionally, having lower WBC count at the time of diagnosis is associated with higher survival rates.
2) High risk. Children with a WBC count of over 50,000 or who are older than age 10 are considered high risk.

ALL staging for adults is broken into three stages:
1) Untreated ALL
Anyone with a new diagnosis of ALL will be in this stage. “Untreated” simply means that your diagnosis is recent. This is the stage before you begin receiving treatment to destroy the cancer cells.
2) ALL remission
Remission occurs after cancer treatments. You’re considered to be in the remission stage when:
a) Five percent or less of the bone marrow cells in your body are cancerous.
b) Your WBC is within normal limits.
c) You no longer have any symptoms.
You’ll likely have more lab tests at this stage to look for any remaining cancer in your body. There are two subtypes of ALL remission:
● complete molecular remission: when there is no evidence of cancer in your bone marrow
● minimal residual disease (MDR): if evidence of cancer can still be found in your bone marrow. People with MDR are more likely to have their cancer come back. If you’re in MDR, your doctor might need to be monitored more closely for signs you’re no longer in remission.
3) Recurrent ALL
This stage occurs when your leukemia comes back after remission. You’ll need another round of testing and more treatment in this stage.

Tests and procedures used to diagnose acute lymphocytic leukemia include:
Blood tests.
Blood tests may reveal too many or too few white blood cells, not enough red blood cells, and not enough platelets. A blood test may also show the presence of blast cells — immature cells normally found in the bone marrow.
Bone marrow test.
During bone marrow aspiration and biopsy, a needle is used to remove a sample of bone marrow from the hipbone or breastbone. The sample is sent to a lab for testing to look for leukemia cells. Doctors in the lab will classify blood cells into specific types based on their size, shape, and other genetic or molecular features. They also look for certain changes in the cancer cells and determine whether the leukemia cells began from B lymphocytes or T lymphocytes.This information helps your doctor develop a treatment plan.
Imaging tests.
Imaging tests such as an X-ray, a computerized tomography (CT) scan or an ultrasound scan may help determine whether cancer has spread to the brain and spinal cord or other parts of the body.
Spinal fluid test.
A lumbar puncture test, also called a spinal tap, may be used to collect a sample of spinal fluid — the fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord. The sample is tested to see whether cancer cells have spread to the spinal fluid.
Genetic tests
It's to look for gene and chromosome changes

Treatment is usually done in two phases:
1) The goal of the first phase is to kill the leukemia cells in the blood and bone marrow. This treatment puts the leukemia into remission. Remission means that the signs and symptoms of cancer are reduced or have disappeared.
2) The second phase is known as post-remission therapy. Its goal is to prevent a relapse (return) of the cancer. It involves killing any remaining leukemia cells that may not be active but could begin to regrow.
Treatments for ALL include:
● Chemotherapy
● Radiation therapy
● Chemotherapy with stem cell transplant
● Targeted therapy, which uses drugs or other substances that attack specific cancer cells with less harm to normal cells
● prophylaxis therapy, Prophylaxis is defined as a process of guarding against the development of a specific disease by a treatment or action that affects pathogenesis.

Treatment during both phases also usually includes central nervous system (CNS) prophylaxis therapy. This therapy helps prevent the spread of leukemia cells to the brain and spinal cord. It may be high dose chemotherapy or chemotherapy injected into the spinal cord. It also sometimes includes radiation therapy.

One of the biggest factors that affects the outlook for people with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia is age. The younger a person is when they are diagnosed and treatment begins, the better the outlook.
● in those aged 14 or younger, more than 9 in 10 (90%) will survive leukaemia for 5 years or longer after diagnosis
● in those aged 15 to 24, almost 7 in 10 (70%) will survive leukaemia for 5 years or longer after diagnosis
● in those aged 25 to 64, almost 4 in 10 (40%) will survive leukaemia for 5 years or longer after diagnosis
● in those aged 65 or older, almost 15 in 100 (15%) will survive leukaemia for 5 years or longer after diagnosis

Cancer is a life threatening disease that can affect anyone regardless of race, age, and gender. Traditional cancer treatments like radiotherapy and chemotherapy often result in undesirable and uncomfortable side effects such as vomiting, numbness, nausea, and diarrhea to name a few. Herbal medicine is a complementary therapy that some people with cancer use to ease cancer symptoms. Herbal remedies for cancer such as those commonly found in traditional medicine contains antimutagenic, anti-inflammatory, and apoptosis inducing compounds that help in slowing the development of cancer and relieve treatment side effects for patients.

Herbal medicine has a wide variety of applications but all of them rely on the sustainable use of various plant parts such as flowers, leaves, bark, and roots. Each part of a plant features different medicinal properties and uses. Although herbal medicine has countless use cases, cancer care is one of the most practical applications because of how harsh traditional oncology treatments can be on patients.

Herbal remedies are a part of a growing field of medicine called integrative oncology. Research conducted on the use of herbal medicine for cancer complementary therapy has proven herbs can:
• Slows the spread of cancer
• Reduces the side effects of cancer treatment
• Boosts immune system strength and functionality
• Minimizes the symptoms of cancer
• Attacks cancer cells

Several herbs may help control the side effects of conventional cancer treatment. However, doctors do not recommend that cancer patients take herbal medicine while undergoing normal traditional cancer treatment. Herbal medicines may be likely less to cause side effects than traditional drugs. But patients may can still experience complications. Some herbs may can cause negative interactions with chemotherapy drugs. Closely monitor how you feel before and after taking herbal remedies. Patients should always consult with their doctor before trying herbs as a complementary therapy or the supplements to avoid complications.