Leukemia is a cancer that mostly affects white blood cells. White blood cells (also called leukocytes) fight infections.
Bone marrow is a spongy material inside the bones that makes white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. With leukemia (loo-KEE-mee-uh), the bone marrow makes white blood cells that don’t work. These abnormal cells can’t protect the body from germs. They crowd the bone marrow, enter the bloodstream, and can spread to other parts of the body, like the lymph nodes, brain, or liver.
Leukemia is the most common type of cancer in children. It can be acute (fast-growing) or chronic (slow growing). Most kids and teens treated for leukemia are cured of the disease.
Chronic myelogenous (mye-eh-LAH-jeh-nis) leukemia starts in early myeloid (MYE-uh-loyd) cells, which are blood cells that usually become white blood cells. These myeloid cells do not mature normally into white blood cells. Instead, they collect in the bone marrow and blood in large numbers.
Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) is also known as chronic myeloid leukemia.
CML happens slowly. At first, a child may have few or no symptoms. Symptoms can take months or even years to start.
Kids with CML may get anemia, which is when the body has too few red blood cells. It happens when bone marrow stops making the usual amount of red blood cells.
Kids with anemia may:
When they don’t have enough platelets (PLATE-lits), kids with leukemia may bruise easily, get nosebleeds, or bleed for a long time after even a minor cut.
Other symptoms of leukemia can include:
Because their white blood cells can't fight infections, kids with leukemia are more likely to get viral or bacterial infections.
Sometimes leukemia can spread, or metastasize (meh-TASS-tuh-size). If it spreads to the brain, symptoms may include headaches, seizures, balance problems, or vision problems. If it spreads to the lymph nodes in the chest, symptoms may include breathing problems and chest pain.
CML is caused by a problem with chromosomes. Chromosomes have pieces of DNA called genes. With CML, a piece of a chromosome breaks off and attaches to part of another chromosome. This forms a mutated (changed) gene called BCR-ABL. This gene then guides the body to make too many abnormal white blood cells.
Researchers aren’t sure why this happens.
Because symptoms can take a long time to happen, doctors might find CML when a child has a blood test for another reason. Doctors check for leukemia with special tests. These include:
How doctors treat CML depends on things like:
Treatments may include:
The goal is remission, which is when there is no trace of cancer cells in the body. Then, doctors use tyrosine kinase inhibitors to keep a child in remission and to keep killing cancer cells. The cancer team regularly checks how well treatment is working by doing blood tests and measuring how many abnormal genes are in the blood.
Having a child being treated for cancer can feel overwhelming for any family. But you're not alone. To find support, talk to anyone on your child’s care team or a hospital social worker. Many resources are available to help you get through this difficult time.
You also can find information and support online at:
Reviewed by: Larissa Hirsch, MD
Date Reviewed: Oct 10, 2021