Leukimia Interview
Interview
Cate: what are some ways that cancer can be diagnosed?
Doctor: so for leukemia the diagnosis is usually first by doing a simple blood test called a full blood count and a film, so we look at the numbers of the different types of cells in the blood and then we look at the cells under the microscope and once we do that we can see if there are any cells that look abnormal and shouldn’t be there and if we do (see any cells that look abnormal) we can do a bone marrow test where we look at where the cells are made.
Cate: What are the treatments for leukemia? And what are some of the side effects?
Doctor: this could take hours to answer. So the treatment, there are two major types of leukemia in children, that children get, they are both acute leukemia’s one is called acute lymphoblastic leukemia and the other is called aml, about three quarters of the kids that get leukemia have the all. They are treated very differently, they are both treated by chemotherapy but they are different chemotherapy treatments, so they are treated with drugs basically to kill cancer cells. The side effects are huge, so there are lots of different side effects, to all the different drugs, but the major ones are that the chemotherapy usually kills the fastest growing cells in the body, usually the leukemia cells. But any other cells that are fast growing get hit as well, that’s why kids loose their hair because the hair grows pretty quickly and that’s why kids are usually at the risk of getting an infection because some of the cells in your blood called “white cells” are growing fast and they grow very low and put they put the kid at risk of getting an infections.
Cate; what are issues that can come up when a child has cancer? e.g. missing out on school, change in appearance.
Doctor; that’s a huge issue, the big issues when your having cancer are first of all adjusting to being sick and having to be in hospital a lot, for kids with all most of there treatment is as an
Cate: what are some ways that cancer can be diagnosed?
Doctor: so for leukemia the diagnosis is usually first by doing a simple blood test called a full blood count and a film, so we look at the numbers of the different types of cells in the blood and then we look at the cells under the microscope and once we do that we can see if there are any cells that look abnormal and shouldn’t be there and if we do (see any cells that look abnormal) we can do a bone marrow test where we look at where the cells are made.
Cate: What are the treatments for leukemia? And what are some of the side effects?
Doctor: this could take hours to answer. So the treatment, there are two major types of leukemia in children, that children get, they are both acute leukemia’s one is called acute lymphoblastic leukemia and the other is called aml, about three quarters of the kids that get leukemia have the all. They are treated very differently, they are both treated by chemotherapy but they are different chemotherapy treatments, so they are treated with drugs basically to kill cancer cells. The side effects are huge, so there are lots of different side effects, to all the different drugs, but the major ones are that the chemotherapy usually kills the fastest growing cells in the body, usually the leukemia cells. But any other cells that are fast growing get hit as well, that’s why kids loose their hair because the hair grows pretty quickly and that’s why kids are usually at the risk of getting an infection because some of the cells in your blood called “white cells” are growing fast and they grow very low and put they put the kid at risk of getting an infections.
Cate; what are issues that can come up when a child has cancer? e.g. missing out on school, change in appearance.
Doctor; that’s a huge issue, the big issues when your having cancer are first of all adjusting to being sick and having to be in hospital a lot, for kids with all most of there treatment is as an