Blood Cancer: Symptoms and Causes

Blood cancers affect the manufacturing and function of your blood cells. Most of these cancers begin in your bone marrow where blood is produced. Stem cells in your bone marrow fully grown and develop into 3 types of blood cells: red blood cells, white blood cells, or platelets. In most blood cancers, the standard blood cell growth activity is obstructed by unlimited development of an unusual type of blood cell. These atypical blood cells, or cancerous cells, prevent your blood from executing many of its functions, like battling off infections or preventing severe bleeding.

There are 3 main groups of blood cancer: Leukaemia, Lymphoma and Myeloma.

There are 3 main kinds of blood cancers:

Leukemia, a kind of cancer based in your blood and bone marrow, is caused by the fast production of atypical white blood cells. The great number of abnormal white blood cells is not able to battle infection, and they impede the ability of the bone marrow to produce red blood cells and platelets.

Lymphoma is a type of blood cancer that affects the lymphatic system, which eradicates surplus fluids from your body and produces immune cells. Lymphocytes are a kind of white blood cell that battles infection. Lymphoma cells, which multiply and collect in your lymph nodes and other tissues, are because of abnormal lymphocytes. Over time, these cancerous cells impair your immune system.

Myeloma is a cancer of the plasma cells. White blood cells that develop disease- and infection-fighting antibodies in your body are the Plasma cells. Myeloma cells prevent the normal generation of antibodies, leaving your body's immune system diminished and liable to infection.

Causes of Leukaemia

The exact cause of leukaemia is still not known, however there are few risk factors which expand the risk of specific types of leukaemia. These involve:

Particular genetic disorders like down syndrome are related with raised risk of leukemia.

People exposed to high amount of radiations. Nuclear reactor, for example.

Specific chemical exposure like benzene

Viral infections.

Smoking and tobacco use is related with acute myelogenous leukemia.

People with medical problems like sinusitis; Pneumonia, chronic osteoarthritis etc. have a moderately higher risk of developing leukemia.

Family history

Signs and symptoms:

Blood cancers can cause many distinct symptoms. Some are common covering all blood cancers; others are more specific of particular types of blood cancer. For example, lymphomas can be distinguished by swollen lymph nodes and one of the most common symptoms of myeloma is bone pain, especially in the back.

The dimness and non-specific nature of the symptoms means that blood cancers can be difficult to detect.

The common symptoms of blood cancers can involve:

Inexplicable weight loss

Exhaustion

Feeling breathless or weak

Easily get injured or bleed

Expanded lymph nodes

Inflated stomach or abdominal tenderness

Recurrent and frequent infections

Pain in bones/joints

Fever/night sweats

Bone pain (ribs/back)

Itchy skin

Diagnosis:

Leukaemia is determined after a routine blood test. Later, the following tests are done to verify the presence of cancer cells:

Physical test

Blood tests

Biopsy

Cytogenetics

Spinal tap

Chest X-Ray

Prevention:

There is no known way to avert most types of Leukaemia, however we can lessen the risk by:

Avoiding high quantity of radiation

Intake of adequate nutrition & staying physically active

Diminishing exposure to chemicals like benzene

Abandoning smoking and tobacco

Treatment:

The treatment of Leukaemia differs depending on the kind and phase of the disease. Possibilities of recovery are always better when identified in early stages. However, cancer doctor therapy aids in treating the disease even when it has reached in advanced or removal stages. It acts on the principle of Immunotherapy that boosts the immune cells of the body i.e. B-CELL, T-CELL to battle against the cancer cells and assists control the disease. Also, Cancer Healer Therapy can be used in fusion with other conventional therapies.