How often does chronic lymphocytic leukemia occur in the U.S.?
Overall, in approximately 2 per every 100,000 people. Leukemia is a disease of aging and the incidence increases to about 6 per 100,000 in adults ages 35-59, and in 30 per 100,000 in people ages 80-84. It is almost exclusively a disease that affects adults and affects twice as many men as women. Are there early warning signs and symptoms people should be aware of? Most often there are no symptoms and a routine blood count for an unrelated problem uncovers an elevated lymphocyte count. The disease progresses through a series of stages. A patient could be diagnosed with an elevated white blood cell count, which would be considered Stage 0 of the disease. Stage I is characterized by enlarged lymph nodes, Stage II by an enlarged spleen and Stage’s III and IV by anemia and thrombocytopenia respectively. Patients will generally progress in an orderly fashion through these stages although there is a small population of patients who remain in the early stages of disease and don’t progress furt
