Blood Cancer Awareness Month: Shedding Light on an Important Cause

September is Blood Cancer Awareness Month and is an important time to shed light on this complex group of cancers, including leukaemia, lymphoma, and myeloma.

Blood cancers occur when blood cells are not made correctly by your body and are then overproduced so they spill into the bloodstream and impact different parts of the body.¹ The most common three types of blood cancer are:

• Leukaemia - when abnormal blood forming cells in the bone marrow grow in an uncontrolled way.² In people with leukaemia, the bone marrow (where blood cells are made) produces abnormal white blood cells (called blasts) that cannot fight infection effectively, which can increase the risk of getting sick.²
• Lymphoma - a type of cancer that begin in the lymphatic system (the various lymph glands around the body) when abnormal white blood cells called lymphocytes grow and multiple causing your lymph nodes to swell.³ Lymphoma can be grouped into Hodgkin’s lymphoma or Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, with the main difference being the specific type of lymphocyte affected.⁴
• Myeloma - is a type of blood cancer that develops from plasma cells in the bone marrow.⁵ It is referred to as multiple myeloma if it appears in multiple parts of the body.⁶

Doctors who specialise in diseases of the blood, bone marrow, and lymphatic system are called haematologists. As well as blood cancers, they diagnose, treat, and manage a range of blood-related conditions.⁷

Symptoms of the different types of blood cancer may include:

If you are worried or have questions about blood cancer, the first step is to have a chat with your Doctor or healthcare professional for more information.