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Cancer

Background

Cancer is the uncontrolled multiplication of body cells which form a tumour. Many specific conditions come under the term cancer.

Leukaemia (see also Leukaemia and other allied blood disorders) is the condition in which the bone marrow is taken over by an excess number of immature white cells, which are unable to perform the normal function of white cells in protecting the body from infection. As a result of the proliferation of these primitive cells within the marrow, there is suppression of the production of normal blood cells, resulting in anaemia, susceptibility to infection and bleeding problems, the hallmarks of leukaemia.

Both conditions are potentially life threatening. The prognosis has been greatly altered in recent years due to treatment with chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Inheritance patterns and prenatal diagnosis View Inheritance patterns and prenatal diagnosis

Medical text written November 1991 by Contact a Family. Approved November 1991 by Professor M Patton, Professor of Medical Genetics, St Georges Hospital Medical School, London UK and Dr J E Wraith, Consultant Paediatrician, Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. Last updated September 2004 by Contact a Family and Dr D Hargrave. Approved September 2004 by Dr D Hargrave, Consultant Paediatric Oncologist, Royal Marsden Hospital, Sutton, UK.

 

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