Leukemia can return after treatment. Doctors call this a relapse. It happens when some leukemia cells survive the first round of therapy and begin to grow again later.
It depends on the type of leukemia. In acute leukemias, relapse is most likely within the first few years after treatment, especially during or shortly after finishing chemotherapy. In chronic leukemias, relapse may come later, sometimes after many years of stability. Doctors keep patients on long-term monitoring for this reason.
Regular follow-up visits are a standard part of leukemia care. These include blood tests, and sometimes bone marrow tests, to look for signs of leukemia cells returning. In some cases, doctors use very sensitive methods to look for minimal residual disease (MRD), which means a tiny number of cancer cells are still present even when the patient seems to be in remission.
Sometimes the first signs are the same as the original ones: feeling more tired, bruising easily, infections, or bone pain. Other times, relapse is only seen in blood counts before symptoms appear. That is why routine follow-ups are done, even when someone feels well.
Yes. The exact approach depends on the type of leukemia, the patient’s age and health, and what treatments were used before. Treatment may include different chemotherapy drugs, targeted therapies, immunotherapy, or a stem cell transplant. Newer treatments are also being used in some cases of relapsed leukemia.
A relapse does not mean treatment has failed forever, but it does mean the disease is harder to treat and requires new strategies. Many patients do respond to second-line therapies, treatments used after the first ones stop working, which might include stronger chemotherapy, targeted drugs, immunotherapy, or a stem cell transplant.
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