|  | Leukaemia affects the white blood cells that circulate your body and the stem cells that are responsible for producing them. The bone marrow of a leukaemia patient produces massive numbers of identical white blood cells that are defective. This makes it difficult for the bone marrow to produce other types of blood cell such as red blood cells.
The type of leukaemia is related to the type of white cells that are being overproduced. If you are overproducing abnormal lymphocytes (T or B-cells) then you have lymphoid leukaemia. If you are overproducing the other types of white cell or platelet producing cells then you have myeloid leukaemia.
 | | This is what AML cells look like under the microscope. |
Leukaemia is also categorised as acute or chronic. This refers to the amount of time the disease takes to develop. Acute disease occurs much more rapidly than chronic and usually requires immediate treatment.
The four main types of leukaemia are acute lymphblastic (ALL), acute myeloid (AML), chronic lymphocytic (CLL) and chronic myeloid (CML). Chronic disease is extremely rare in young people. |
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