Blood cancer – what is it, Blood Cancer Signs, Symptoms & Diagnosis
Blood cancer develops and affects human blood cells. The DNA in the blood cells gets mutated and thus develops into blood cancer. Blood cancer grows when the blood cells start behaving abnormally.
Types of blood cancer
It is surprising to note that blood cancer can be of different types and treatment options also vary depending on the types of blood cancers.
Leukaemia
Leukemia, the most common type of blood cancer, mainly develops in the white blood cells of the bone marrow. Leukemia can also be categorized into different parts.
- ALL or Acute lymphoblastic leukemia- This develops fast, and it adversely affects the effect on lymphoid blasts or lymphoblasts.
- AML or Acute myeloid leukemia- This type of blood cancer upsets the myeloid blood cells.
- APL or Acute promyelocytic leukemia- This type of cancer grows in the promyelocytes cells.
- CML or Chronic myeloid leukemia affects the myeloid cells, which are white blood cells.
Lymphoma
This blood cancer develops in the white blood cells, also known as lymphocytes. Lymphocytes help in maintaining the immune system in the human body.
Apart from those above, humans also suffer from the blood cancers like Burkitt lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, Myeloma, Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), etc.
Symptoms
Blood cancer is a life-threatening disease; hence, all should understand the symptoms of blood cancer.
- Suffering from acute anemia is a sign of having blood cancer. Here people will feel shortness of breath, dizziness, chest pain, tiredness, etc.
- Sometimes bleeding gums, heavy menstruation problems, and small red dots on the skin can be signs of blood cancers.
Diagnosis
Once doctors suspect that a person is suffering from blood cancer, they will ask the patient to undergo certain tests. Blood tests, Bone Marrow Tests, Biopsy at the Lymph Node, Chest X-ray, CT scan, and MRI are some necessary tests to diagnose blood cancer. You can contact Dr. Ashish Pokharkar, Pimpri Chinchwad, to get all the relevant details.