People having Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia can experience the following signs or symptoms. Most often, people with CLL show no symptoms. Or, the cause of a symptom can be a different medical condition that is not leukemia.
Often, people are diagnosed with CLL when the doctor finds several white blood cells in a blood test done for some other reason. Also, the immune system of people having CLL may not work well. This means that the body’s immune system sometimes makes abnormal antibodies against its red blood cells or platelets. The antibodies destroy these cells, causing anemia or low numbers of platelets. These types of antibodies are called autoantibodies. People having CLL can develop autoantibodies at any time, which is not necessarily related to the severity of the CLL.
Other possible symptoms of CLL can be –
- Fatigue
- Feeling full despite not eating much.
- Swelling lymph nodes or glands in the neck, under the arms, or in the groin. This is a common symptom that people having CLL usually notice first. The enlarged lymph nodes are not typically painful.
- Abnormal bleeding
- Symptoms often called “B symptoms” include fever, chills, night sweats, and weight loss.
- Shortness of breath
- Malaise, or generally not feeling well
- Recurrent infections
