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June 16, 2026Leukemia
Dr. Lalita Norasetthada, M.D.
Division of Hematology, Department of Medicine
Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University
Leukemia is caused by an abnormality of the hematopoietic stem cells in the bone marrow, resulting in an abnormal, massive, and uncontrolled increase in the number of white blood cells in the bone marrow. This causes white blood cells to accumulate until they fill the bone marrow and are then released into the bloodstream, resulting in an abnormally high number of white blood cells in the blood. It is divided into 2 major groups according to the course of the disease, namely:
- Acute leukemia is a disease in which there is an increase in the number of immature white blood cells that cannot mature into normal mature white blood cells, causing a rapid increase in immature white blood cells in the bone marrow and resulting in a decreased production of all types of blood cells. Patients therefore develop abnormal symptoms within a short period of time, including fatigue, pallor from anemia, fever due to infection because the mature white blood cells responsible for preventing infection are reduced in number, and easy bleeding, especially along various mucous membranes, due to low platelets.
- Chronic leukemia is a disease in which there is an abnormal increase in the number of white blood cells, but they are still able to mature into mature white blood cells, so the symptoms of the disease develop
- gradually. In the early stage, patients usually have no symptoms, until the number of white blood cells in the blood rises greatly, causing fatigue or anemia, or accumulating in the spleen and causing an enlarged spleen, leading to abdominal bloating or a palpable mass in the abdomen, and so on.
