A devastated family revealed this week that their sporty teenage son died of leukemia just 24 hours after being diagnosed – leaving many to wonder if cancer can kill in such a short period of time.
Kyle Limper, 16, developed back pain after playing basketball earlier this month, but became so ill within days that he couldn’t get up.
His family said there were no early warning signs, but when the cancer was finally diagnosed, his organs had already started to shut down and he died within hours.
Dr. Arif Kamal, the lead patient of the American Cancer Society, said patients can die from leukemia even within 24 hours of being diagnosed because the cancer grows rapidly and may not be caught until late stages once it has spread. It comes after 79-year-old Jerry Springer died of pancreatic cancer months after his diagnosis.
Kyle Limper, a 16-year-old died within 24 hours of being taken to hospital and diagnosed with leukemia
Limper was a high school athlete who complained of back pain after a recent basketball game, leading his parents to take him to the hospital
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that cancer caught early, before it has metastasized or spread, has a significantly higher survival rate than those detected after it has spread
It was not yet clear what type of cancer Kyle had, but the two most common types in young people are acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).
In these cancers, white blood cells begin to grow out of control in the body before spreading to blood vessels and vital organs.
The cancer can also progress quickly because it inherits the ability of white blood cells to multiply quickly, which is only meant to be deployed when they are fighting infection.
When asked about the case, Dr. Kamal told DailyMail.com that the late detection of the cancer was likely due to a combination of missed symptoms and the speed at which the cancer progressed.
He said: ‘Patients usually feel very exhausted, tired, sleep a lot and may lose weight unintentionally.
‘But [it is possible for someone to] miss that, [especially if] they’re an athlete and caught up in something or doing something that’s strenuous.”
It was not clear how long the patient had had the cancer before the pain in his back came on.
Dr. Kamal said that in some types of leukemia – such as chronic leukemia – patients can have the disease for months or even years without having any symptoms.
But with AML and ALL, symptoms usually appear within a few weeks as the first cancer cells divide rapidly and spread in the body.
He told DailyMail.com, “What I’ve seen is someone going for a physical and they’re fine.
“But for the next week, they don’t feel so great and they come back in and their white blood cell count is through the roof.
“Could those changes occur in a few days? Absolute.’
He added: “I would say from my own experience it wouldn’t be surprising for someone who was – let’s say a week or two ago – fine and could have normal labs. [vitals]that things can change quickly in a few days.’
The normal white blood cell count is from 4,500 to 11,000 per microliter of blood.
But when patients have leukemia, this can even rise to more than 200,000 white blood cells per microliter within a week.
Asked how the patient could have died so soon after diagnosis, he said it may have been due to the late diagnosis and the treatment he received.
The late diagnosis would have meant there were already a large number of cancerous white blood cells in his system, he said, likely interfering with the functioning of his vital organs — such as the heart, liver, kidneys and lungs.
Doctors may have also administered chemotherapy to kill the cancer cells, he said, but the resulting damage may have strained his vital organs.
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) estimates that two million people in the United States will be diagnosed with cancer this year (pictured left). Of the two million expected cancer diagnoses, more than 600,000 of those people will die, the NCI estimates (pictured right)
Dr. Kamal added: “Leukemia is a medical emergency and people die if they are not treated within hours to a few days.”
While back pain is not a typical symptom of cancer, it may be caused by cancerous white blood cells forming a mass near nerves or joints in the spinal cord that cause the symptoms.
They can also build up in the bone marrow, he said, causing it to rapidly expand in size and also put pressure on nerves in the bone tissue.
Mr Limper died on April 13 this year after his organs failed, his family have revealed in a tribute post.
The youngster appeared fit and healthy beforehand and was an avid athlete who competed in American football, wrestling and track and field. He had hopes of becoming a CSI or FBI agent.
But after playing a basketball game a few days ago, he came off the field and said his back hurt.
His parents rushed him to the emergency room at Jefferson Hospital, Pennsylvania, but after the doctors couldn’t find anything wrong, they told the family to come back in a few days if the pain continued.
His father Kyle told FOX29“They told me if he doesn’t get better I’ll have to bring him back in a few days.
“Well, in a few days he couldn’t even get up.
“He couldn’t even get out of bed and I had to help him up and get up, then he fell back on the bed.”
They then took him to St. Christopher’s Hospital near their home in Kensington, a Philadelphia neighborhood, where doctors diagnosed him with leukemia and said his organs were failing.
He died in hospital within 24 hours of being diagnosed, the family said.
His family wrote on the GoFundMe page: “He was a perfectly healthy and happy young man with no signs of illness.
“It just came and took him the same day. He passed away peacefully surrounded by supportive and loving people.”
In the United States, approximately 6,500 people are diagnosed with ALL each year, six out of 10 of whom are children. A total of 730 people under the age of 20 are also diagnosed with AML each year.
ALL has a five-year survival rate of 89 percent for people under the age of 20, but for adults it drops to 40 percent, according to cancer.net.
Factors that affect the survival rate include how quickly the cancer is diagnosed in patients.
For example, while the five-year survival rate of many types of leukemia is over 70 percent, the symptoms can mirror other conditions or be easily overlooked.
The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society lists common symptoms such as fatigue, shortness of breath, pale complexion, easy bruising, prolonged bleeding, and unexplained weight loss or gain.
This also applies to many other forms of the disease. Common symptoms of all cancers, according to the American Cancer Societyinclude fatigue, unexplained weight loss or gain, loss of appetite, abdominal pain, nausea, swelling or nodules in the body, unexplained pain, unusual bleeding, and headache.