What are the main symptoms of blood cancer?

We recently spoke with esteemed consultant haematologist, Dr Sunil Gupta, to find out what causes blood cancer, what the main types are, what the main symptoms include, and how the potentially curable illness can be treated and controlled.

What is the cause of blood cancer?

There is no one particular cause of blood cancer, but smoking has been implicated as a direct cause of lung cancer. Of course, a few blood cancers may have some genetic predisposition, but there is no one specific cause of blood cancers, such as lymphoma or leukaemia. As we get older, our genes acquire various abnormalities, and, unfortunately, this can result in one suffering from a type of blood cancer.

What are the main symptoms of blood cancer?

Blood cancer occurs from the bone marrow, which produce red cells, white cells, and platelets. Any of these three different kinds of cells can start to malfunction or go down in number, or indeed all three of them can go down in number.

The main symptoms to watch out for then would be looking pale, feeling fatigued, suffering from throat or skin infections, or any recurrent infection. Patients should also watch out for bruising easily, bleeding easily, nose bleeds, gum bleeding, or blood in the stool or urine.

Palpitations, skin rash, vision issues, chest pain, abdominal pain, and various lumps and bumps are also major warning signs that could indicate that one could potentially have blood cancer.

What are the main different types of blood cancer?

One can suffer from either acute blood cancers or chronic blood cancers. The main acute types are acute leukaemia and acute lymphoma. The main chronic types include chronic leukaemia, multiple myeloma, as well as low-grade lymphoma.

How is blood cancer treated?

Thankfully, we can control most of the blood cancers, and a lot of blood cancers can also be cured. Chemotherapy would be one of the main treatment options. After that, we can have some targeted therapy, which involves inhibiting the growth of the cell.

Then, we have various bone marrow transplants that are actually supposed to cure acute minor leukaemia, and other types of bone marrow transplants can prolong the survival of various blood cancers.

What is the recovery rate for blood cancer?

So, of course, this depends on which blood cancer we are talking about. Every blood cancer has a different median of survival. Overall, though, the general survival rate is improving due to the advancements made, particularly in the last ten years.

Dr Sunil Gupta is a highly experienced and trusted consultant haematologist who is an expert when it comes to diagnosing and managing blood cancers. Consult with him today via his Top Doctors profile if you are concerned about any of the symptoms mentioned in the above article.