Leukemia: What are the symptoms? | Norton Cancer Institute

Don A. Stevens, M.D., Medical Oncologist at Norton Healthcare, explains what leukemia is and the symptoms associated with this type of blood cancer.

In general, symptoms of leukemia are ones that have to do with not having enough normal blood cells and if you don't have enough normal white cells you may present to your doctor with infections for example, chronic unexplained serious infections, fevers, chills. Then also because of the platelets can be affected a lot of times patients will present with bleeding or easy bruising. We sometimes see what we call petechiae, which is just a medical word for small red dot under the skin. We frequently will see that at least initially in the lower part of your body, say below your knees, ankles and feet. As the disease gets worse you may see those dots elsewhere but those petechiae again, small red dot under the skin, that is a symptom or sign of having low platelets which can be a symptom of leukemia, and then anemia, feeling bad, mallays, not sleeping well, sleeping too much. I mean, those are some of the things that we see with leukemia.

Those are the acute leukemias and the chronic leukemias sometimes they're found in a routine blood test. So, some chronic leukemias don't have a lot of symptoms initially. Patients with chronic leukemia may be discovered in the emergency room when they're there for another problem or they may be discovered after a motor vehicle accident where you see something and say, hey you've got too many white blood cells or sometimes people will just go to their primary care doctor and over a period of time they will say you know, Mrs. Jones, last year your white blood cell count was a little on the high side, now it's a little higher and we need to look into it, even where they really don't have a lot of symptoms.

One of the scary things about this disease is how quickly it can come on you and that's a hallmark of the acute form of leukemia. You can be very well, maybe a little fatigued, but for the most part feeling yourself and then three weeks later you can have difficulty with bleeding gums, you bump yourself on the kitchen counter and you get a huge bruise instead of a little one. You have these petechiae, these red dots on your legs, maybe blood in your urine and all that comes on real quick and it's just because of the rather rapid way that acute leukemia can compromise your production of normal blood cells.

Learn more about leukemia https://www.nortonhealthcare.com/Leukemia

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