New Drug has Potential to Destroy Leukemia White blood cells are the body's foot soldiers in its everyday battle against infections and diseases. Even when we are feeling well, they are working together in a carefully orchestrated manner to target and destroy dangerous substances in our body. Any disease that prevents the white blood cells from doing their job puts us at great risk for infection and illness. Leukemia is that kind of disease. It happens when our body's system for making white blood cells malfunctions, resulting in the uncontrolled production of abnormal white blood cells that cannot protect us against disease. If left untreated, leukemia can cause death in a matter of months. Simply put, leukemia is a cancer of the blood cells. It usually involves the white blood cells, but in rare cases involves the red blood cells and platelets as well. The disease originates in the bone marrow. Like all cancers, it is characterized by the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells. When these defective cells accumulate in the bone marrow where they are produced, it inhibits the production of blood cells of every kind. All blood cells pass through many stages on their way to complete maturity, beginning within the bone marrow as immature cells called blasts. Leukemia can occur at any of these stages of development, affecting one of the two major categories of white blood cells: lymphoid cells or myeloid cells. According to J. Gordon McVie author of “Cancer Treatment: The Last 25 Years,” states that each year, nearly 27,000 adults and more than 2,000 children in the United States learn that they have leukemia. It affects 13.2 per 100,000 men and 7.7 per 100,000 women in the United States. Chronic leukemia comprises 35% to 50% of all cases of leukemia (324). With such a great number of people becoming infected with this rapidly spreading disease, medical science has worked almost endlessly to improve the outlook for leuke...
