You can live to be old with CLL and some people have lived 20 to 30 years with CLL even without treatment.
The mortality rate for CLL is 85 percent as around 85 out of 100 people with CLL will survive 5 or more years after being diagnosed with CLL.
The leading cause of death in CLL patients is infection and immune system failure.
The signs that your CLL is getting worse is that you notice symptoms such as night sweats, fatigue and weight loss.
The longest someone has lived with CLL is 32 years and it was Ed Spuzello who was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in 1988.
Stage 4 CLL is the most serious stage of CLL or Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia.
The key is that your platelet count is low, which means your blood won't clot well (thrombocytopenia).
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) can rarely be cured. Still, most people live with the disease for many years.
Some people with CLL can live for years without treatment, but over time, most will need to be treated.
Leukemia on a blood test will look like abnormal levels of white blood cells and abnormally low red blood cell or platelet counts which can indicate leukemia.
You can live with leukemia for a few months to a few years without knowing it.
If you suspect leukemia you should get tested so that if you do have leukemia you can get treatment as soon as possible.
You can have leukemia and not know it as most people with leukemia don't have any symptoms at first or even for a year or longer.
The main symptoms of leukemia are breathlessness, weakness, pale complexion, anemia and tiredness.
Leukemia bruises appear on the hands, legs and the back.
The blood disorders that come before leukemia are myelodysplastic syndrome which is a group of related disorders that cause abnormal blood forming cells to develop in your bone marrow.
In the beginning these blood forming cells interfere with the production of your normal blood cells and later the blood cells become cancerous and turn into leukemia.
The red flags of leukemia are bone pain, fatigue, weakness, loss of appetite, night sweats, headaches, shoulder aches, shortness of breath, abdominal pain and possible unexplained weight loss.
The bone pain with leukemia is felt in the long part of your legs bones and can also be felt in the long part of the arm bones as well.
Leukemia bone pain is also sometimes felt in the breastbone and the ribs.
With leukemia the joint pain and swelling of your large joints such as your shoulders and hips also sometimes begins several weeks after the initial bone pain with leukemia begins.
A leukemia headache will feel like a banging headache where you can most often also hear your heartbeat in your ears and it will feel like your head is throbbing.
Headaches caused by leukemia are most likely to happen and occur frequently and are most often long lasting and severe headaches.
Leukemia bone pain will feel like a sharp pain in the bone or it can also be a dull constant ache in one or more bones.
The part of the body that leukemia affects is the soft, inner part of your bones also known as the bone marrow.
However the leukemia can move quickly into your blood and then spread to other parts of your body which can include the central nervous system, liver, spleen, lymph nodes and other organs.
The leukemia red spots will look like tiny red spots on your skin and are called petechiae.
On fair to light skin tones the tiny red spots with leukemia can appear as red dots and on darker skin tones the leukemia red spots can appear darker than the surrounding skin and be less noticeable.
Leukemia on a CBC or complete blood count will look like abnormal levels of white blood cells and also abnormally low red blood cells or platelet counts.
The skin with leukemia will look like bumps or nodules and skin lesions which looks like red-brown to purple firm bumps and or nodules which represents the leukemia cells depositing in your skin.
The skin conditions of leukemia are bruising and/or a rash of the skin.
With leukemia various types of rashes can occur such as a purpura rash or a petechiae rash that can appear when small blood vessels break under your skin.
Some of the rashes with leukemia also involve nodules, papules or bumps on the surface of your skin.
The symptoms of leukemia in adults are increased bruising and bleeding, tiredness, and or anemia, (pale complexion, breathlessness and weakness, repeated infections, mouth sores, sore throat, sweats, fevers, coughing, boils, infected cuts and scratches and frequent passing of urine with irritation.
The age that leukemia is most common is the ages of 65 to 74 years of age.
Even kids can get leukemia or anyone of any age although adults that are between the ages of 65 to 74 years of age are at the highest risk of developing leukemia.
A doctor diagnoses leukemia through a blood test and blood sample and through a microscopic evaluation of your blood using flow cytometry.
Blood tests are essential to the accurate diagnosis of leukemia as the blood tests can show if you have leukemia cells or abnormal cells in the blood.
Silent leukemia is a type of leukemia cancer that is harder to diagnose because with silent leukemia the symptoms don't manifest or show until the later stages of the leukemia.
The 3 crucial leukemia symptoms are persistent fatigue, persistent weakness and severe or frequent infections.
Fever and chills are also common with leukemia.
The two late stage symptoms of leukemia are slow breathing with long pauses, noisy breathing with congestion and cool skin which can turn bluish, dusky color which also occurs especially in the feet and hands.
Other late symptoms or end stage symptoms of leukemia are dryness of mouth and lips, decreased amount of urine, loss of bowel and bladder control and restlessness or repetitive, involuntary movements.
The leukemia symptoms are increased bruising and bleeding, tiredness, and or anemia, (pale complexion, breathlessness and weakness, repeated infections, mouth sores, sore throat, sweats, fevers, coughing, boils, infected cuts and scratches and frequent passing of urine with irritation.
Leukemia cancer can sometimes be cured through chemo or other cancer treatments to keep it from spreading although it may come back.
The sooner you get treatment for Leukemia the higher chance you have at being cured.
If the leukemia is caught and treated soon enough then you can in most cases be fully cured of Leukemia.
Although it still has a slight chance of coming back.
AML Leukemia is a deadly cancer.
If not treated the AML leukemia can spread and be fatal.
The 5-year survival rate for people 20 and older with AML is 26%.
For people younger than 20, the survival rate is 68%.
However, survival depends on several factors, including biologic features of the disease and, in particular, a patient's age.
Leukemia patients do usually need a bone marrow transplant which can help create new healthy blood cells and help treat the Leukemia cancer.
In some cases, a bone marrow transplant may even help get rid of harmful leukemia cells.
The goal of a bone marrow transplant in treating leukemia is complete remission.