Learn about the different types of blood cancer, as well as symptoms, causes, and treatment options.
If you’ve ever cut your finger or scraped your knee, you’ve probably bled. That viscous red liquid is a vital component of the body and helps maintain health and performance. Without it, our muscles and organs couldn’t get the oxygen and other nutrients they needed to function correctly. The United States is diagnosed with blood cancer.
Though you can’t see its various components with the naked eye, that ruby fluid is made up of lots of different types of cells, some of which can turn cancerous and lead to serious complications. Manufactured by the body in the spongy tissue deep inside the bones called bone marrow, blood is made up of three main components.
Also read-Skin Cancer : A Patient’s Guide To Skin Cancer And Its Symptoms
The Three Main Components of Blood Cells:
- White blood cells are immune system components that combat infection.
- Red blood cells, which transport oxygen throughout the body and exchange it for carbon dioxide, help the body eliminate waste while supplying nutrients to all of its tissues and cells.
- Platelets, which lessen excessive bleeding after an injury by assisting the blood clot,
Any of these elements has the potential to develop cancer, giving rise to various forms of blood cancer. “Approximately every three minutes, one person in the United States is diagnosed with blood cancer,” according to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Types of blood cancer
The American Society of Hematology reports that there are three main types of blood cancers:
- Leukemia.
- Lymphoma.
- Myeloma (or multiple myeloma)
The LLS reports that an “estimated combined total of 176,200 people in the U.S. are expected to be diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma, or myeloma in 2019.” Together, blood cancers account for about 10% of all new cancer cases expected to be diagnosed in the U.S. in 2019.
While treatments for blood cancer have improved significantly over the past 20 years, they can still be fatal. The LLS reports that “approximately every 9 minutes, someone in the U.S. dies from a blood cancer. This statistic represents approximately 156 people each day.” This amounts to 9.4% of the anticipated deaths from cancer in 2019.
Overall five-year relative survival rates for blood cancers range from 52% for myeloma to 88% for Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Survival rates vary widely depending on the type, stage of diagnosis, age of the patient, and treatment protocol.
Symptoms of blood cancer
Leukemia
Maloney says that while there are often minimal outward signs of some kinds of blood cancer, “patients with chronic leukemia often get diagnosed because they’re feeling fatigued or ill and have a blood test that shows they have too many white blood cells or too few red blood cells, which causes them to become anemic. If you’re anemic, you get tired and exhausted.” In anemia induced by leukemia, the white blood cells are crowding out the red blood cells. This means there aren’t enough red blood cells to transport oxygen where it needs to go, leading to fatigue and malaise.
Hematology oncologist Dr. Susan M. O’Brien of UCI Health in Orange County, California, concurs that “lab work as part of a routine physical that shows an elevated white blood count is one of the most common ways these patients are diagnosed.” Chronic leukemia is frequently asymptomatic. But symptoms can appear quickly because “acute leukemias are almost always symptomatic.”
Lymphoma
Because lymphoma’s unchecked proliferation of lymphocytes causes these excess cells to collect in lymph nodes, lymphoma “typically presents with lumps, bumps, or masses in the lymph nodes” or with other tumor masses, particularly in the neck or groin area, Maloney says. There are many lymph nodes throughout the neck and groin areas. Fevers, weight loss, and night sweats may also develop in some people with lymphoma.
Myeloma
Maloney says that some patients with myeloma have very few symptoms at all, and those who do may present with bone fractures and other problems with the bones. Frequent or difficult-to-explain bone fractures may lead your doctor to perform some blood tests and find that myeloma is the source of the problem. Other symptoms may include:
The diagnosis of blood cancer
Leukemia
In addition to performing a physical exam and taking a thorough patient history, your doctor can often diagnose leukemia with a simple blood test. That test is looking for whether you have an abnormal red or white blood cell count. A bone marrow biopsy, in which a tiny piece of bone marrow tissue is harvested from the pelvic bone and examined under a microscope, can confirm a suspected case of leukemia.
Lymphoma
If your doctor suspects you may have lymphoma, he or she will perform a thorough physical examination to look for swollen lymph nodes. One or more of these lymph nodes may be biopsied for further testing. This procedure involves removing a tiny bit of tissue from the lymph node to look at under the microscope to see whether lymphoma cells are present. If they are, the types of cells present will be determined. Similarly, your doctor may remove a small sample of bone marrow to analyze. A simple blood test can also count the number of the various cells in a sample of your blood to determine whether too many of a certain type of cell are present. Imaging tests may also be used to look for signs of lymphoma throughout the body.
Myeloma
The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation reports that “multiple myeloma can be difficult to diagnose,” but that your doctor will conduct a thorough physical exam, take a complete medical history, and use diagnostic tests to arrive at a conclusion. Diagnostic tests may include:
- Imaging, such as X-rays, MRI scans, CT scans, and PET scans.
- Genome sequencing is used to look for genetic mutations specific to your cancer.
- Blood tests to determine the levels of various types of cells in the blood.
Treatment of blood cancer
Leukemia
According to Maloney, not every form of leukemia requires immediate treatment. Certain cases of chronic leukemia can be monitored, and if they worsen in the future, treatment may be administered. In certain instances of acute leukemia, prompt and intensive therapy is essential for survival. “Generally, chemotherapy or some of the more targeted therapies are used in patients who are experiencing symptoms or in aggressive cases of leukemia,” he says. Several drug classes are included in these targeted therapies, such as:
- Monoclonal antibodies.
- Tyrosine kinase inhibitors
- Histone deacetylase inhibitors
- Hypermethylation inhibitors.
- Proteasome inhibitors.
These medications all aim for different targets on cancer cells. Because they’re so specific, they typically cause fewer side effects than traditional chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is still a very common way to treat many types of leukemia, but Maloney says “there’s been a lot of movement in the past decade towards these newer therapies.”
Lymphoma
Because some types of lymphoma are very slow-growing, depending on the exact type of lymphoma you have, you may not need immediate treatment. Other forms of the disease are more aggressive and will require treatment as soon as they’re identified.
The Dana-Farber Cancer Center reports that “treatments for lymphoma vary depending on the type of disease, its aggressiveness, and location, along with the age and general health of the patient. As a general rule, however, Hodgkin lymphoma is considered one of the most treatable cancers, with more than 90% of patients surviving for more than five years. Survival rates for patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma tend to be lower, but for certain types of the disease, the survival rates are similar to those of patients with Hodgkin lymphoma.”
Myeloma
For less aggressive cases of multiple myeloma and patients who don’t have symptoms, treatment may not be necessary. In people who have more aggressive or advanced cases of multiple myeloma, a variety of treatment approaches may be used, including:
- Chemotherapy.
- Medications to treat bone disease.
- Radiation therapy.
- Blood transfusions.
- Intravenous immunoglobulin infusions are used to treat infections.
- Steroids to fight inflammation.
- Targeted therapies.
- Stem-cell transplant
Also read-Prostate Cancer : A Patient’s Guide To Prostate Cancer And Its Symptoms
images source: Google
Disclaimer: The opinions and suggestions expressed in this article are solely those of the individual analysts. These are not the opinions of HNN. For more, please consult with your doctor.
