leukemia

[loo-kee-mee-uh] /luˈki mi ə/

noun, Pathology

any of several cancers of the bone marrow that prevent the normal manufacture of red and white blood cells and platelets, resulting in anemia, increased susceptibility to infection, and impaired blood clotting.

Also, leucemia.

Origin

1850-55; earlier leuchaemia < German Leukämie (1848). See leuco-, -emia

Related forms

leukemic, adjective

antileukemic, adjective, noun

Examples from the web for leukemia

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia is cancer of a type of white blood cells called lymphocytes.
Several years later, five children developed leukemia after receiving a gene that was meant to boost their immune systems.
Chronic myelogenous leukemia is cancer that starts inside bone marrow, the soft tissue inside bones that helps form blood cells.
Bone-marrow transplants for leukemia rely on stem cells to replenish blood cells, for instance.
Other groups have recently screened for drugs that target leukemia stem cells and brain cancer stem cells.
If you put that mutation into normal cells, it can turn it into leukemia cells.
Modified immune cells decimated chronic lymphocytic leukemia, scientists found.
Fighting leukemia may soon become as easy as getting a shot.
Acute myeloid leukemia occurs when the body develops an abnormal amount of undeveloped white blood cells.
leukemia could do that, as could some other rare disorders.

British Dictionary definitions for leukemia

leukaemia

/luːˈkiːmɪə/

noun

an acute or chronic disease characterized by a gross proliferation of leucocytes, which crowd into the bone marrow, spleen, lymph nodes, etc, and suppress the blood-forming apparatus

Word Origin

C19: from leuco- + Greek haima blood

Word Origin and History for leukemia

1851, on model of German Leukämie (1848), coined by R. Virchow from Greek leukos "clear, white" (cognate with Gothic liuhaþ, Old English leoht "light;" see light (n.)) + haima "blood" (see -emia).

leukemia in Medicine

leukemia leu·ke·mi·a (lōō-kē'mē-ə)
n.
Any of various acute or chronic neoplastic diseases of the bone marrow in which unrestrained proliferation of white blood cells occurs and which is usually accompanied by anemia, impaired blood clotting, and enlargement of the lymph nodes, liver, and spleen.

leu·ke'mic adj.

leukemia in Science

leukemia

(l-kē'mē-ə)
Any of various acute or chronic neoplastic diseases of the bone marrow in which unrestrained proliferation of white blood cells occurs, usually accompanied by anemia, impaired blood clotting, and enlargement of the lymph nodes, liver, and spleen. Certain viruses, genetic defects, chemicals, and ionizing radiation, are associated with an increased risk of leukemia, which is classified according to the cellular maturity of the involved white blood cells.

leukemia in Culture

leukemia [(looh-kee-mee-uh)]

A kind of cancer in which the number of white blood cells in the blood greatly increases. Leukemia usually spreads to the spleen, liver, lymph nodes, and other areas of the body, causing destruction of tissues and often resulting in death.