Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia is an uncontrolled proliferation of lymphoblasts. Within the Bone is a hollow space that is filled with bone marrow. The bone marrow is composed of fat cells and other blood cells.
The bone marrow comprises of three types of cells – Red Blood Cells (to carry oxygen to the entire body and carry carbon dioxide to the lungs), White Blood Cells/ lymphocytes (to fight infections) and Platelets (prevent bleeding by clot formation). These blood cells form from the earliest cells called Stem Cells. These stem cells mature into RBCs, WBCs and platelets and are released into the circulating blood.
Immature lymphocytes are called Lymphoblasts. When the Lymphoblasts divide but cannot differentiate into either the normal mature T or B lymphocytes, it leads to crowding of the bone marrow with Lymphoblasts. When the Lymphoblasts percentage is high, it is called Acute Lymphoblastic leukemia. The two types of Acute Lymphoblastic leukemia are either B Acute Lymphoblastic leukemia or T Acute Lymphoblastic leukemia.
