Chronic lymphatic leukaemia (CLL) is a type of cancer of the blood cells.
In CLL, white blood cells accumulate in the blood, spleen and bone marrow. The bone marrow is located inside our bones and is responsible for the production of red blood cells, platelets and white blood cells. White blood cells help the body to defend against infection.
There are two major types of white blood cells:
Lymphocytes normally survive for only 8 to 10 days. In chronic lymphocytic leukemia, they survive much longer, producing large amounts of abnormal white blood cells that take over and crowd out the other healthy blood cells. This proliferation jeopardises the production of normal blood cells.
In acute leukaemia the white blood cells do not mature. In a short space of time, there is an accumulation of immature blood cells and a shortage of mature white blood cells.
In chronic leukaemia the cells still mature reasonably well and the disease process is slower than in acute leukaemia. Chronic leukaemia is a type of blood cancer in which the bone marrow is affected by an uncontrolled division of white blood cells.
We speak of lymphatic or myeloid leukaemia, depending on the type of white blood cell causing the disease. There are thus four types of leukaemia:
Please contact your treating doctor for more information.
Your treating doctor will discuss the treatment options with you in detail.
