Newer treatment of Cancer promise lesser side-effects and better post-treatment life to the patients

Mahesh (name changed) had a history of bleeding gums and loss of appetite. He was diagnosed with an Acute Blood Cancer. The baby did not have liver, spleen and lymph node enlargement. These indicated that the baby had Acute promyelocytic leukemia AML) and subsequently a diagnostic tests called FISH test for PML-RAR alpha was done, which was positive. He was started on arsenic treatment after which he responded very well and counts recovered.

A six-year-old with history of joint pain and inability to walk from three months was treated as a case of Arthritis till he started developing enlargement of liver, spleen and lymph node. He was investigated and diagnosed as acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL).

Newer therapies not only reduce the plight of a cancer patinet but also improve the quality of life after the treatment. A bone marrow was repeated and the diagnosis was reconfirmed as acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The baby had all markers pointing to good survival (like age of six years, presenting WBC count less than 20,000, good response to steroid at end of one week on peripheral blood, special tests showing absence of bad markers).

The good news is that treatment consists of six months of injection and two and half years of tablets. The baby is nearing end of treatment and is expected to have a normal life span, says Dr Vijay Ramanan, clinical haematologist at Ruby Hall Clinic. He added that the importance of this is that the treatment of ALL type is for about three years and that of AML type is for six months. Treating this condition of AML-M3 or APML is relatively non-toxic. Patients don't lose hair nor have vomiting.

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