Learn about blood cancer

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There are three types of blood cells — red blood cells, white blood cells, and microglia. These blood cells are made inside the bone marrow. Leukemia is an abnormal growth of white blood cells in the blood or bone marrow. Men and women of any age can have leukemia or lymphoma.

Because
The real reason is unknown. However, radiation, manufactured chemicals or chemicals, pesticides, adulterated food, hair dyes, lubricants, varnishes, chemotherapy drugs and some genetic diseases are blamed. When stem cells mutate or change inside the bone marrow for any reason, blast cells or immature cells grow very fast during the formation of blood cells.

Signs and symptoms

• Weakness due to anemia, loss of appetite, palpitations, watery feet, paleness etc.

• Chronic fever or frequent fever.

• Abnormal bleeding (body rash, bleeding from the base of teeth, bleeding with urination and cough, excessive menstruation, etc.).

• Swollen glands, enlarged liver and spleen.

• Bone pain.

Anemia due to red blood cell deficiency, recurrent infections due to abnormal white blood cells or fever and hemorrhage due to microbial deficiency. When abnormal blood cells (cancer cells) accumulate in the glands, liver and spleen, they become larger.

How to diagnose

• Abnormalities can be seen in the CBC test of blood along with the signs and symptoms of blood cancer. Such as decrease in hemoglobin and platelets, increase in WBC or decrease in hemoglobin, platelets and WBCs.

• Blood cancer is then diagnosed by bone marrow test, flowcytometry, cytogenetic study.

• Some cancers require glandular or tissue biopsy and subsequent immunohistochemistry.

Treatment

• Blood cancer is usually treated with chemotherapy. Leukemia or lymphoma is subdivided into tests to determine what type of medication or chemotherapy should be given and what the outcome will be.

• Acute leukemia is very serious. Its treatment has to be started quickly.

• Whatever the type of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), treatment is extremely expensive and long-term. It only takes two to two and a half years to treat with chemotherapy.

• Blood cancers called M-3 or APL are more likely to be completely cured if they are treated with medication or chemotherapy for six months to two years.

• There is no effective treatment for some blood cancers other than BMT or bone marrow transplantation.

• There are also different types of chronic leukemia. The type of treatment is also different. Patients with chronic leukemia can stay well for many days with proper treatment.

• With the discovery of molecular targeted therapy, many cancers can be cured. Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is one of them.

• Blood cancer does not mean death. Many blood cancers can be cured and controlled if proper diagnosis and proper treatment are given at the right time.