What is Blood Cancer?
Blood cancer or Leukaemia is a group of cancers that originate in different parts of the blood cells. Such cancers restrict the usual functioning of blood cells and make the system weak.
This form of cancer impacts blood, lymph and bone marrow. They are capable to hit more than one body part, thus considered deadly. There are many risks factors that can cause blood cancer, and genetic factors are among them.
Exposure to radiation is also known as a factor that can cause blood cancer. Other causes include exposure to chemicals and HTL virus.
What are the types of Blood Cancer?
In general, there are three types of blood cancer with marked variations. Let’s have a look at each of them:-
Leukemia – Such cancers affect the marrow or the blood
Lymphoma – This form of cancers affect the lymphocytes
Myeloma - This category of cancers affect the plasma
Sign and symptoms of Blood Cancer
Symptoms of blood cancer often vary according the type of the disease. It means, the set of symptoms would vary slightly in leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. Some symptoms may show a similarity, but surely not all.
However, there are some general symptoms that accompany the disease. Let’s have a look at some of symptoms that are present in blood cancer patient, like:-
• Anemia • Feeling of weakness • Extreme fatigue • Sweating and breath shortness • Swelling in the lymphatic • Unexpected bouts of chill • Issues of night sweating • Pain in the back • Chest pain
Treatment of Blood Cancer
There would be a variance in the treatment of blood cancer, as the nature of disease may vary from patients to patients. Chemotherapy would be used to damage and kill the abnormal cancer cells.
Intensive treatment is the norm to deal cases where the leukaemia relapses. Here, the doctor would do a stem cell or bone marrow transplant to treat the patient.
A great caution is observed before the transplantation. High doses of chemotherapy are given to the patient. More so, in some cases, radiotherapy is also used.