Question 1

ALL (Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia)

Accepted Answer

Acute lymphocytic leukemia occurs when a bone marrow cell develops 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.

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Question 2

CLL (Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia)

Accepted Answer

Doctors aren't certain what starts the process that causes chronic lymphocytic leukemia. What's known is that something happens to cause mutations in the DNA of blood-producing cells. A cell's DNA contains the instructions that tell the cell what to do. The changes tell the blood cells to produce abnormal, ineffective lymphocytes.

Beyond being ineffective, these abnormal lymphocytes continue to live and multiply when healthy lymphocytes would die. The abnormal lymphocytes accumulate in the blood and certain organs, where they cause complications. They may crowd healthy cells out of the bone marrow and interfere with blood cell production.

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Question 3

CML (Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia)

Accepted Answer

CML causes an increased number of white blood cells in the blood. Chronic myelogenous leukemia happens when something causes changes to the bone marrow cells. It's not clear what starts this process. However, doctors have discovered how it progresses into chronic myelogenous leukemia.

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Question 4

Lymphoma

Accepted Answer

Doctors aren't sure what causes lymphoma. But it begins when a disease-fighting white blood cell called a lymphocyte develops a genetic mutation. The mutation tells the cell to multiply rapidly, causing many diseased lymphocytes that continue multiplying.

The mutation also allows the cells to go on living when other normal cells would die. This causes too many diseased and ineffective lymphocytes in your lymph nodes and causes the lymph nodes, spleen, and liver to swell.

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Question 5

Multiple Myeloma

Accepted Answer

Multiple myeloma is a cancer that forms in a type of white blood cell called a plasma cell. Healthy plasma cells help fight infections by making proteins called antibodies. Antibodies find and attack germs.

In multiple myeloma, cancerous plasma cells build up in bone marrow. In the bone marrow, the cancer cells crowd out healthy blood cells. Rather than make helpful antibodies, the cancer cells make proteins that don't work right. This leads to complications of multiple myeloma.

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Question 6

Myelodysplastic Syndromes

Accepted Answer

Myelodysplastic syndromes are a group of disorders caused by blood cells that are poorly formed or don't work properly.

In a healthy person, bone marrow makes new, immature blood cells that mature over time. Myelodysplastic syndromes occur when something disrupts this process so that the blood cells don't mature.

Instead of developing normally, the blood cells die in the bone marrow or just after entering the bloodstream. Over time, there are more immature, defective cells than healthy ones, leading to problems such as fatigue caused by too few healthy red blood cells (anemia), infections caused by too few healthy white blood cells (leukopenia) and bleeding caused by too few blood-clotting platelets (thrombocytopenia).

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