Blood Cancer

What is blood cancer?

Blood Cancer is the term that refers to cancers that affect the blood, bone marrow and the lymphatic system. In most blood cancers, the normal cell production is interrupted by uncontrolled growth of abnormal blood cells. This can reduce the bone marrow’s ability to produce normal levels of blood cells. The abnormal blood cells can prevent blood from fighting off an infection.

Blood cancer can affect anyone

There are three main types of blood cancers:

1. Leukaemia is the cancer that is found in your blood and bone marrow

2. Lymphoma is blood cancer that affects the lymphatic system

3. Myeloma is blood cancer that specifically targets plasma cells in the body

How can it be treated?

Blood Cancer can be treated by a bone marrow transplant which replaces the damaged cells with healthy ones from a donor. Transplants are also used to treat patients with certain immune system and genetic disorders. Now donating bone marrow is a simple blood donation and stem cells to donate for a transplant can be extracted from the blood.