Patients with leukemia were not doing so good till some short time ago when it comes to treatments or medication. With the help of modern medicine and technology doctors and scientist have just recently come up with some treatments or ways to fight the symptoms of this terrible disease. One of them would be chemotherapy; radiation therapy is also available but probably the best and most logical thing to do would be: get a bone marrow transplant from a compatible donor in the family or from any relative.
In the cases of chemo and radiation therapy control of the cells that are affected has yet to be possible. Because normal cells are also damaged in the process side effects are also going to appear, varying in severity from person to person. Another factor that can either good or bad is the resistance of each individual to the kind of therapy they are getting. Planning the stages of therapy would be a very wise thing to if side effects are to be kept at a minimum.
The side effects in chemotherapy vary a lot, depending on the drugs that the patient is prescribed. Again the person factors comes in to place to determine the severity of the side effects. This way dividing cells are more likely to be affected by anticancer drugs. This is because the cancer cells have a more rapid way of dividing and their numbers must be kept at bay. Most often cells that have a rapid way of dividing are the ones that are hit very hard. Because of this the risks of getting an infection increase dramatically and also the chance is that the patient may become very weak. There is a god thing about this though: the patient can recover and does recover in the periods of between treatments or in the normal recovery periods.
The most common side effect in radiation therapy would be tiredness that sometimes overcomes the patient. The proper amount of rest is needed but still one should maintain a healthy active way of life. The most visible of side effects is the loosing of hair in the head, that is when the radiation is directed in that direction, and the different skin problems that ultimately appear. Nausea and vomiting may also appear with the loss of appetite in some cases. As in the case of chemo therapy this side effects are also temporary and can be controlled at some point if medical advices are followed properly. In some rare occasion more lasting side effects do occur and this is especially in small an growing children. Because of the doses of radiation given to them learning and coordination may be affected.
Bone marrow transplant is nor with out its risks also. Infection may most often appear in patients that also undergo chemo or radiation therapy. Another very likely problem to appear is the actual fighting between the cells of the donor and the cells of the host. It can be mild in action or very severe. It can be quick to appear or as in some cases it could take some time.
