Rare cancer of white blood cells

What is acute lymphoblastic leukaemia? ALL is a rare type of blood cancer. It affects about 650 adults and children a year in the UK and is most common in children and young people up to the age of 25, and in adults over 75. It affects slightly more men than women, although experts don’t know why. Chemotherapy is the main treatment, as well as the possibility of a stem cell transplant. The number of deaths from ALL has fallen by 53% in the last 40 years. How does it affect the body? ALL is a cancer of the white blood cells. Normally they divide and grow in an orderly and controlled way, and help the body fight infection. But in leukaemia this process has gone out of control, so the cells keep dividing too quickly and don’t work properly.

These abnormal cells fill up the bone marrow and do not leave enough space to make all the healthy white cells, red cells and platelets our bodies need to survive. Without treatment it is fatal. What causes it?