Causes of leukemia based on Chinese medicine
In traditional Chinese medicine, the onset of leukemia has a lot to do with environmental factor, heredity, metabolism, and immunity. TCM believes that the damage (deficiency) of spleen and kidney is the main cause of leukemia. Children with acute leukemia usually have symptoms such as fever, mouth ulceraton, severe anemia, bleeding. For those with chronic leukemia, they don't have obvious symptoms at early stage. But in late stage, they suffer from fatigue, loss of appetie, weight loss, headache, dizziness, pale complexion, fever, sweating, abdominal distension, or enclosed mass in groin, etc.

Causes of leukemia in western medicine
There are many different causes of Leukemia. Leukemia is essentially the term used for the cancer of the white blood cells. Leukemia is the blood cancer when the white blood cells begin to grow and their count raises all of the sudden in the body. As the result of cancer the bone marrow will produce large number of immature white blood cells that lie in the blood system. Leukemia originates from the Greek words ‘leukos’ and ‘heima’ as there are excess white blood cells in the blood. This disease was first detected in Edinburg, in the year 1845 by John Hughes. Leukemia is a deadly cancer disease that affects children and also the adults and there are very bleak chances of survival. When the old or worn out cells in the body die, they are immediately substituted by new ones. However, in the case of leukemia, the old and worn out cells do not show any destruction and the new ones are subsequently produced and surplus of cells in the body cavity will lead to the development of cancer.

Something that increases a person’s chance of developing a disease.. There isn’t a known, single cause of leukemia. Most cancers are the result of many risk factors. However, some people with leukemia do not have any identifiable risk factors. Different types of leukemia have different risk factors. One risk factor may not increase the risk for all types of leukemia. Not all risk factors for the different types of leukemia are listed below. Men are more likely than women to develop leukemia. The risk for developing most types of leukemia increases with age. The following factors are known to increase the risk of developing some types of leukemia:
1) Genetic syndromes  
2) Fanconi anemia
3) Ataxia-telangiectasia
4) High doses of radiation
5) Chemotherapy given in the past to treat cancer
6) Exposure to benzene or formaldehyde
7) Radiation therapy combined with chemotherapy given in the past
8) Radiation therapy given in the past to treat cancer or other health conditions
9) Bloom syndrome
10) Ataxia-telangiectasia