Leukemia is
the most common type of cancer kids get, but it is still very rare. Leukemia
involves the blood and blood-forming organs, such as the bone marrow. {{U}}
{{U}} 1 {{/U}} {{/U}} A kid with leukemia produces
lots of abnormal white blood cells in the bone marrow. Usually, white blood
cells fight infection, but the white blood cells in a person with leukemia don't
work the way they're supposed to. {{U}} {{U}} 2 {{/U}} {{/U}}The
abnormal white blood cells multiply out of control, filling the bone marrow and
making it hard for enough normal, infection-fighting white blood cells to form.
Other blood cells—such as red blood cells (that carry oxygen in the blood to the
body's tissues) and platelets (that allow blood to clot)—are also crowded out by
the white blood cells of leukemia. These cancer cells may also move to other
parts of the body, including the bloodstream, where they continue to multiply
and build up. Although leukemia can make kids sick, most of the
time it is treatable, and kids get better. Almost all leukemia patients are
treated with chemotherapy, which means using anti-cancer drugs. {{U}}
{{U}} 3 {{/U}} {{/U}}Chemotherapy quickly goes to work, traveling
through the blood to the bone marrow. There, the drugs can attack the cancer
cells. After several weeks of chemotherapy, many kids begin to feel
better. Some children with leukemia will also have to have
radiation therapy, too. {{U}} {{U}} 4 {{/U}} {{/U}}
If the cancer isn't getting better from using the usual amounts of
chemotherapy and radiation, then a kid with leukemia will probably need more
treatment—with higher doses of chemotherapy and radiation finally to kill the
cancer cells. But this heavy-duty treatment will also harm the normal cells in
the kid's bone marrow too, and the bone marrow will no longer be able to produce
normal blood cells. So, doctors will then give a kid—or anyone else with bone
marrow that is no longer working—normal bone marrow tissue from someone else who
is healthy. {{U}} {{U}} 5 {{/U}} {{/U}} A．The
chemotherapy drugs are given through a catheter, a narrow tube that is inserted
into a blood vessel, sometimes in the kid's upper chest.
B．Early symptoms of leukemia are often overlooked, since they may resemble
symptoms of the flu or other common diseases. C．This is a
special procedure called a bone marrow transplant, and it helps the patient make
new blood cells so they can recover from the leukemia. D．Bone
marrow is the innermost part of some bones where blood cells are first
made. E．They don't protect the person from infections very
well. F．Radiation therapy uses invisible high-energy waves
(similar to X-rays) to kill cancerous cells.