There are three types of blood cells circulating in the blood, the red blood cells, platelets and white blood cells. They are all produced by the stem cells in the bone marrow. Normally, bone marrow stem cells will multiply and grow into mature blood cells. When blood cells are mature, they will leave the bone marrow and circulate in the peripheral blood. With leukaemia, there is an abnormal growth or accumulation of white blood cells in both the bone marrow and peripheral blood, leading to elevation of white blood cell count.

There are many types of types of leukaemia and treatment varies for different types. Leukaemia is classified into acute leukaemia and chronic leukaemia. They can be further classified according to the cell types:

a. acute myeloid leukaemia (AML): a cancer of myeloid blood cells. It is the most common type of leukaemia, mostly in older adults.

b. acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL): a cancer of the immature lymphoid cell. It occurs more often in children and the most common leukaemia in children. 

c. chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML): a cancer of myeloid cells associated with presence of Philadelphia chromosome and more common in adults.

d. chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL): which is a cancer of mature lymphoid cells. It occurs mostly in older individuals (>60 years old). It rarely occurs in children.

You can refer to the following website for more information on investigating, making diagnosis and treatments for Blood Cancer.

Information of Blood Cancer

The source of information is provided by the Hospital Authority Smart Patient