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Child Leukemia Research Paper

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Having to watch a person suffer is quite difficult, but having to bear witness to the suffering of a child is downright heartbreaking. Thinking from a parent’s perspective it seems unimaginable to think that an innocent child, your child, could be diagnosed with cancer; and although it is rare for a child to develop cancer it is not impossible. Sadly, cancer is actually the leading cause of death by disease past infancy among children in the United States.
When most people hear the word cancer they usually think of a tumor; a mass that is the source of the problem and can possibly be removed with surgery. This scenario however is not how it works with leukemia for the simple fact that leukemia is a cancer of the blood cells. Leukemia is the most common childhood cancer accounting for about thirty-one percent of all cancers in children. The cancerous leukemia cells made in the bone marrow grow so rapidly that eventually they spill out into the bloodstream.
There are several types of leukemia and most of these types are made from cells that normally would develop into white blood cells. This is where leukemia received its name because the word ‘leukemia’ is derived from a Greek word which means …show more content…

White blood cells are cells that help the body fight against infections and disease. Red blood cells are the reason why blood has its red color. These red blood cells are cells that carry oxygen away from the lungs and deposit it throughout the body’s tissues; while also transferring the carbon dioxide in the body back to the lungs. Platelets are cells that help the body clot when there is an injury. This clotting process helps to control bleeding so the body does not lose excessive amounts of blood. All of these blood cells are formed from stem cells in the bone

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