Leukemia care at Miami Cancer Institute at Baptist Health South Florida is targeted and personalized. Special diagnostic techniques help us provide the most accurate leukemia diagnosis – down to the subtype – by revealing blood cell counts, genetic and molecular abnormalities, and bone marrow changes.
Our physicians use the information gathered during your diagnostic tests – including genetic information – to develop a treatment plan tailored for your specific condition.
Leukemia describes a group of blood cancers that affect leukocytes (white blood cells). These cancers begin in the bone marrow, where blood cells are made, but can affect other parts of the lymphatic system, too.
The condition happens when genetic information (DNA) in white blood cells is altered or destroyed. This causes the body to produce dysfunctional white blood cells that take over the bone marrow. This eventually affects the body’s ability to produce healthy white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets.
Though pediatric leukemia is the most common type of cancer in children and teens, most types of leukemia affect adults.
Leukemia may develop quickly (acute leukemia) or slowly (chronic leukemia). It can also affect different types of white blood cells.
The most common types of leukemia are:
Other types of blood cancers that are similar to leukemia include myeloproliferative diseases and systemic mastocytosis. Myeloproliferative diseases happen when the body makes too many white blood cells, red blood cells or platelets. Systemic mastocytosis occurs when a type of white blood cell called a mast cell builds up in internal tissues and organs.
The main risk factor for leukemia is exposure to high levels of radiation or certain chemicals. Other risk factors include:
Doctors do not know yet if there is a way to prevent leukemia. It is not possible to prevent it by avoiding risk factors – you can develop the condition with no known risk factors, or you can have one or more risk factors and never develop leukemia.
