Unit 2 Case 3 Flashcards
What is Unit 2 Case 3 about?
Young male patient 5 years old develops acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL). The boy shows signs of pallor, lymphadenopathy, and dyspnoea which raises suspicion of if anemia is involved.
Blood tests show too many white blood cells that require a bone marrow aspirate to confirm the diagnosis.
The boy is treated with oral iron supplements and a blood transfusion in the short term before being put on induction chemotherapy for the next 3 years without relapse
What are immature white blood cells?
Immature white blood cells are white blood cells that have not fully developed before being released from the bone marrow into the blood
How would a full blood count differ in patients with anemia?
Red blood cell counts, haemoglobin, hematocrit or mean corpuscular volume would be lower than normal, suggesting anemia
How would a full blood test indicate liver or kidney damage?
If levels of c-reactive protein are abnormal, levels of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) are high or levels of blood urea are high this can indicate liver or kidney
How does the translocation of chromosome 9 to 22 link to ALL?
As the transolcation of chromosome 9 to 22 contains the BCR-ABL fusion gene which is repsonsible for the overproduction of white blood cells
What is ALL?
Acute Lymphoid Leukemia
What are the types of chromosome translocation?
Reciprocal translocation
Robertsonian translocation
What is reciprocal translocation?
When 2 different chromosomes exchange segments with each other
What is Robertsonian translocation?
When an entire chromosome attaches to another chromosome at the centromere
What are the main types of leukemia?
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML)
Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML)
Acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL)
Chronic lymphoid leukemia (CLL)
What is a relapse in ALL and what causes it?
A relapse in ALL is the return of ALL in patients who have already undergone treatment and reached complete remission
Relapse happens if the cancer doesn’t respond well to the first treatment tried, and possibly spread to other areas of the body the test didn’t pick up
What is anemia?
A condition in which you don’t have enough healthy red blood cells to carry adequate oxygen to your body’s tissues
What is iron-deficiency anemia?
A common type of anemia
-the body doesnt have enough iron to produce adequate levels of hemoglobin, and therefore healthy blood cells
What is PCR?
Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is a method of amplifying and making many copies of a small section of DNA or a gene
What is lymphadenopathy?
Swollen lymph nodes