KESJ: 21 May 2009

Thursday, May 21, 2009

21 May 2009

The doctor telephoned today and told us that Jeremy still has numerous blast cells in his bone marrow, that he is considered as high risk, and that he will need a bone marrow transplant in a few months' time. We were very sad to hear this, especially since Jeremy has been so happy and active - he seems so "normal" and "healthy" that sometimes we had even forgotten that he has leukaemia. He will still be admitted to hospital on Monday for a week or so, but he will be given much more potent chemo drugs to try to reduce the number of blast cells. We will know more about his treatment regime on Monday.

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Definitions

Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) - a rapidly progressing cancer of the blood and bone marrow. ALL affects the type of developing white blood cells known as lymphocytes. It is the most common form of childhood leukaemia, and the most common type of childhood cancer. It also occurs in adults.

Blast cells - immature blood cells normally found in the bone marrow. Blast cells normally constitute up to 5% of all bone marrow cells. These cells divide and replenish all the normal blood cells in the marrow and circulating blood. Acute leukaemia is characterised by an accumulation of abnormal blast cells that take over the marrow and spill out into the blood stream.

Bone marrow transplant - the process of replacing bone marrow cells (stem cells) that are unhealthy, with stem cells that are healthy. The healthy stem cells are re-infused intravenously through the central line, after very strong chemotherapy and/or radiation to kill unhealthy stem cells. The re-infusion of healthy stem cells essentially rescues the patient from the chemotherapy and/or radiation, by enabling his or her bone marrow to start producing new blood cells.