Hairy Cell Leukemia Treatment Side Effects

Clinical trials are studying new biological therapies and targeted therapies for treating hairy cell leukemia.

Hairy cell leukemia treatment side effects.

Find out everything you need to know about hairy cell leukemia including treatment options. Types of hairy cell leukemia treatment for many people with hairy cell leukemia starting treatment helps them focus on moving ahead and looking forward to their disease s remission. This summary is about hairy cell leukemia. What are the side effects from the treatments.

Hairy cell leukemia treatment. Infections due to fungus and viruses can affect the skin lungs liver or brain. It also causes damage to fast growing normalcells including hair cells and cells that make up the tissues in your mouth gut and bone marrow. What are the side effects of hairy cell leukaemia treatment.

Lurie comprehensive cancer center of northwestern university. Drugs used in chemotherapy such as cladribine work in different ways to stop the growth of cancer cells either by killing the cells by stopping them from dividing or by stopping them from spreading. Hairy cell leukemia hcl is a cancer of the blood that starts in your bone marrow the soft tissue inside bones where blood cells are made. Symptoms from these can include fever cough rashes headaches or confusion.

For other patients side effects can be more severe sometimes requiring hospitalization. Chemotherapy kills cells that multiply quickly such as leukaemic cells. This phase ii trial studies the side effects and how well cladribine and rituximab work in treating patients with hairy cell leukemia. Side effects include flu like symptoms such as fever and fatigue.

Feinberg school of medicine. The leukemia cells can build up in the blood and bone marrow so there is less room for healthy white blood cells red blood cells and platelets. Other drugs that target the immune system may be recommended if your cancer returns or if it doesn t respond to standard treatments. Some of the leukemia cells may collect in the spleen and cause it to swell.

Doctor visits are done every few months to check for signs that the hcl is growing and to see if it s causing any problems like low blood counts fatigue or an enlarged spleen. Patients without symptoms often don t need to be treated right away but they do need to be watched carefully. Several types of approaches and treatment are used for adults with hairy cell leukemia some at different stages. Hairy cell leukemia hcl tends to be slow growing.

For most patients treatment side effects are temporary and go away once therapy ends. Before you undergo treatment talk with your doctor about potential side effects.