How is lymphocytic leukemia treated?
Disease description:
A friend has been feeling extremely weak all over for the past few days, and her complexion is also very poor, appearing notably pale. I urged her to go to the hospital for an examination, and the results diagnosed her with leukemia. Could you please explain how lymphocytic leukemia should be treated?
Doctor's answer (1)
Dr. Liu Feng
The treatment of lymphocytic leukemia mainly includes the following approaches:
1. General treatment: Maintain the patient's nutrition; administer packed red blood cell transfusions for anemia and platelet transfusions for thrombocytopenia.
2. Pharmacological treatment: Targeted therapies, such as imatinib, inhibit the proliferation of BCR-ABL-positive cells. Chemotherapeutic agents, such as cyclophosphamide and prednisone, help control disease progression.
3. Surgical treatment: Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, suitable for some patients, especially those with poor prognosis.
4. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM): Herbal remedies, such as Astragalus membranaceus (Huangqi) and Atractylodes macrocephala (Baizhu), are used as adjunctive treatments to inhibit leukemia cell proliferation.
5. Radiotherapy: For patients with central nervous system involvement, localized cranial irradiation may be performed.
Treatment methods should be selected based on the patient's condition and disease type, following the principle of early diagnosis and prompt treatment.
