Clinical features

Symptoms will depend on whether the leukaemia is acute or chronic.

Acute Leukaemia

People with acute leukaemia feel generally unwell and often rapidly become really ill. Symptoms include:

• Tiredness
• Weakness
• Weight loss
• High temperatures that come and go
• Frequent infections which do not get better as expected
• Easy bruising
• Nose bleeds or bleeding gums
• Blood in the urine or in stools
• Bone or joint pain
• Skin rashes
• Shortness of breath
• Swollen glands
• Abdominal pain or discomfort

Chronic Leukaemia

A proportion of people have no symptoms at all. Some people feel non-specifically unwell. Specific symptoms include:

• Abdominal pain
• Weight loss
• Swollen glands
• Bleeding or easy bruising
• Infections which do not get better as expected
• Anaemia may cause tiredness and reduced exercise tolerance
• Bony pain
• Night sweats
• High temperatures that come and go

Leukaemia may affect the brain causing cognitive defects, fits, difficulty moving limbs or personality changes. This is more common in recurrent leukaemia than primary disease.

Amended February 2009