Blood cancer (Leukemia)
One in 10,000 citizens falls ill with blood cancer each year in Germany. The disease was first recognized in 1845 as a massive accumulation of white blood cells. There are normally 3,000 to 10,000 white blood cells per milliliter of whole blood, but with blood cancer that number may skyrocket to above 100,000.
Like all cancers, leukemia starts from a single abnormal cell, in this case a white blood cell. Normally, the division of human cells is under very tight control throughout life. The control is by the genes, which see to it that white blood corpuscles only proliferate once they are completely developed and fully functional. It is then that they can go into battle against pathogens.
In the case of leukemia, certain cell's genes have been altered and tell the immature blood cell to start dividing out of control. These malignant blood cells elude the control mechanisms which normally rigorously control the proliferation and maturation of defense cells. The proliferation of these blood cancer cells occurs regardless of whether there are pathogens that actually need to be fought.
Ironically, this increased number of white blood cells will actually lead to more infections. The abnormal white blood cells are not mature, and therefore cannot carry out their infection-fighting function in the blood. Huge troops of useless, white blood cancer cells go on patrol in the blood. And even worse, these cells crowd out the efficient, healthy blood cells and suppress their production. This is life threatening for the body.
The cause for some types of leukemia is already known – two of the total of 46 DNA strands break apart and are misconnected by the repair systems in the cell (see Translocation).
