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Leukemia Prevention: Tips, Facts, and More

Risk factors for leukemia

There are few known risk factors for leukemia. Not all factors can be controlled, but there are a few you can control with lifestyle changes. Risk factors you may have some control over include smoking and exposure to environmental chemicals.

Risk factors you can’t control include:

  • Your age: Study has shown leukemia to be most common in children, and in adults over 50.
  • Your gender: Study has also shown leukemia to be slightly more common in men than women.
  • Your genes: Leukemia doesn’t always run in families. But the chromosomal mutations that are thought to lead to leukemia might be inherited in some cases. You are more likely to get leukemia if you have close relatives who’ve had leukemia.
  • Previous cancer treatment with chemotherapy and radiation: If you have been treated with chemotherapy and radiation in the past, you have an increased risk of leukemia. The full risks of radiation are still being studied.
  • Treatment with immune-suppressing drugs: Drugs that suppress your immune system, like the medication prescribed to organ transplant patients, can increase your leukemia risk.
  • Down syndrome and other genetic syndromes: Certain genetic conditions can make you more likely to develop leukemia. This includes Down syndrome, Klinefelter syndrome [4], Fanconi anemia [5], and Bloom syndrome [6].
  • Having an identical twin who had or has leukemia: An identical twin who developed leukemia in the first year of their life increases your risk of developing leukemia.