Leukemia is also known as the cancer of the blood or that of the bone marrow. Multiple myeloma, another name for cancer of the blood is a cancer wherein the bone marrow (which is the soft tissue in the bones) is infected with malignancy. The bone marrow produces cells called stem cells which mature into three different types of cells i.e. red blood cells (carry oxygen), white blood cells (fight infection) and blood platelets (help in blood clotting). Every normal cell dies after completing its life cycle. However, in patients suffering from cancer of the blood, the white blood cells (also called leukocytes) forget to die after their life cycle completion. As a result they make other blood cells non-functional.

Due to the non-functioning blood cells, the body loses its ability to fight diseases thus rendering it highly susceptible to infections like diarrhea, pneumonia and flu. Cancer of the blood causes the body to loose weight suddenly and unexplainably. Anorexia is commonly seen in patients suffering from cancer of the blood.

Mostly the blood smear of patients with cancer of the blood when seen under a microscope shows an unusually high number of white blood cells while an extremely low number of red blood cells. As a result of excessive white blood cells, the non-infected cells have to share their resources which causes malfunctioning of these cells as well. Red blood cells contain hemoglobin which carries oxygen. Shortage of red blood cells leads to anemia and shortness of breathe i.e. breathlessness.

Cancer of the blood can be diagnosed with a blood test, bone marrow biopsy and lymph node biopsy. Amongst these, blood test may not be very accurate because sometimes the cancerous cells remain within the bone marrow and have are yet to infect the bloodstream. In this case only the bone marrow is infected and not the blood stream. This is also known as aleukemia.

The usual methods of treating cancer of the blood are chemotherapy, radiation therapy, anti cancer drugs and bone marrow transplant. Since cancer of the blood is basically cancer of the bone marrow, it can be treated well by transplanting healthy bone marrow in place of the infected one. Doing so prevents the further production of cancerous blood cells thereby avoiding cancer in the bloodstream which may spread to other parts of the body. Blood transfusions, performed to replenish the body with hemoglobin lost in the form of red blood cells, is a common practice with patients suffering from cancer of the blood.

Blood cancer or leukemia is the cancer that originates in the tissue that forms blood. White blood cells or leukocytes and red blood cells or erythrocytes together compose blood. The unusual proliferation of leukocytes is the causal element of blood cancer. Also known as bone marrow cancer, this disease springs up in the bone marrow where bloods cells i.e. red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets are produced. In leukemic patients, the white blood cells do not die after completing their life cycle causing overabundance of leukocytes. Thus one of the major blood cancer symptoms and signs includes lack of blood platelets which play an important role in clotting of blood. Thus, excessive bleeding and bruising like a peach are major blood cancer symptoms.

White blood cells are mainly responsible for providing immunity to the body against various diseases. When they do not function properly the body becomes susceptible to various disorders. Being easily infected with diarrhea, tonsils, pneumonia or sores in the mouth are also blood cancer symptoms. Some patients may experience fever, shivering, chills, night sweats, feeling fatigued and other flu like signs which may be blood cancer symptoms. Also, the onset of anemia, which is a result of the loss of red blood cells, is another one of the blood cancer symptoms.

Sometimes the liver and spleen may swell up due to leukemia. This causes patients to feel full thereby resulting in unintentional weight loss. This along with constant headaches (which may occur of blood cancer cells invade the central nervous system) blood cancer symptoms which should never be ignored.

Some other blood cancer symptoms are weakness, breathlessness, malaise, nose bleeds, bleeding gums, anorexia, enlargement of the lymph node, weak bones, pain in the bones or joints, back pain, fractured bones with minimum impact, swelling or pain in the abdomen, fluid retention, delirium, visual disturbances, decreased urination, etc.

As most blood cancer symptoms are associated with other diseases, leukemia is more often than not diagnosed with medical tests. These tests include blood cells, lymph node biopsy and bone marrow biopsy. Blood tests can sometimes be deceptive as the large number of white blood cells may not show in the blood smear seen under a slide. This occurs when the leukocytes are still trapped in the bone marrow and have not yet entered the blood stream. This is known as Aleukemia and is mostly seen in hairy cell leukemia.

Leukemia, also known as multiple myeloma is the cancer of the blood. Cells of the blood, mainly white blood cells (also called leukocytes) affected by cancer are known as blood cancer cells. Any normal blood cell (erythrocytes, leukocytes and blood platelets) originates in the bone marrow. The cells of the bone marrow are called stem cells. Stem cells develop into three different types of cells on maturing depending on the nature of the tasks they perform. Red blood cells carry oxygen for the body, blood platelets help in blood clots which controls bleeds and white blood cells help fight infection. Blood cancer cells are cells of the blood (basically white blood cells) which forget to die after completing their life cycle. As a result there exists an excess of white blood cells.

The blood cancer cells eat away the resources of the otherwise non-infected cells rendering them unfit for proper functioning of their tasks. As the white blood cells mainly fight diseases, a person suffering from blood cancer loses his/her immunity against various infections. Thus diarrhea, pneumonia, fever and other flu like signs are common symptoms of blood cancer.

Other symptoms include weakness, the feeling of fullness, bone and joint pain, pain in the lower back, swelling and pain in the stomach. Since the oxygen supply to the body is also through the blood, breathlessness is another symptom caused by the non-functioning blood cancer cells. Anemia, anorexia and sudden weight loss are also caused by infected blood cancer cells. Anemia and breathlessness are both caused by the low red blood cell (which contains hemoglobin that is the oxygen carrier) count in the body.

Unlike other cancers, there exists no tumor in leukemia. The blood cancer cells in the bone marrow undergo uncontrolled proliferation as a result of which the entire bloodstream has blood cancer cells. Thus leukemia can be mostly diagnosed with a blood smear test. The blood cancer cells i.e. the white blood cells, when observed under a microscope will appear to be unusually large in number. The red blood cells (erythrocytes) on the other hand will be extremely small in number in a leukemia patient. Other diagnostic tests include lymph node biopsy and bone marrow biopsy. The treatment for this disease involves bone marrow transplant. Blood cancer is basically cancer of the bone marrow and replacing the infected bone marrow so as to stop the supply of blood cancer cells to the body is an apt treatment.

Platelets help in clotting of blood in case of any injury and the WBC’s are the soldiers which fight the germs in the body and protect us from diseases. actually the WBC form the immune system, but in case of cancer the count of WBC get reduced so much that a person can die even of a normal flu. Also the body is not able to stop the flow of blood in case of any injury due to platelets counts reduce. This is a very vulnerable situation.

There are two types of blood cancer- acute and the chronic. Both forms are dangerous. Acute leukemia affects the cells which are partially developed or being derived from the other cells. These are called non-functional cells because they have not attained there full utility.

In case of disease as these developing cells get affected and even outnumber the normal cells, as a result the count of RBC get reduced afterwards resulting to anemia. In case of chronic, it affects the normal cells. This allows the development of larger amount of the normal cells. Thus in this case the normal cells outnumber the developing one and as a result the flow of blood is affected as the number of cells increases. These cells are termed as blood cancer cells.

The blood cancer is divided into four categories.

Myelogenous Leukemia (both acute and chronic)

Lymphocytic Leukemia (both acute and chronic)

Blood cancer symptoms are generally visible in case of the acute leukemia. In case of the chronic one only the blood test and usual checkup will tell the position. In case of the chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) a person may see enlarged lymph nodes in neck, armpit, etc. also a person may fall to infections now and then. Some of the symptoms of acute leukemia are

• Fatigue.
• Sluggish curing of any wounded part of body.
• Night sweats.
• Bruises without any injury

Blood count test helps in getting the actual position. This may tell the right amount of the cells in the body.  They are on higher side or the lower one. Test also accounts for the cancerous cells if any. Bone marrow test is also a part to get the chromosome irregularity if any.

When you asked the doctors about their opinion, most of them say that the cancer blood test and few others are the first and the foremost step to help them to diagnose the problem. With the advent of 21^st century we are facing newer and newer diseases with endless challenges. One of them is the cancer and among them is the blood cancer. This is because the blood is the connecting tissue of the body and flow in every part of body. In case of cancer the blood cancer cells also travels along which does the most damage. Also this is a disease with no guarantee of cure.

Blood test alone can mark the presence of the cancer in the body of any kind alone. If the doctor suspects the same, he can order the cancer blood test with few other necessary tests like urine analysis and biopsy of the suspicious part of body, to help in the diagnosis. These tests are very important as they give the doctors an insight about the internals of body and can be missing parts of the puzzle. But keep one thing in mind merely order of these tests by doctor doesn’t mean that the cancer is being diagnose and you have cancer.

You can reduce your anxiety by knowing about these tests and can also get to know how they are lifesaving.

The Blood Tests- Samples of blood taken in the lab are analyzed for the signs of cancer. The blood sample may show the cancer cells directly or the proteins made by cancer. They give an insight of the working of the body organs and how much it is affected by the disease to the doctors.

Blood tests that are conducted are-

1. Complete blood count (CBC) – This is a very common test in which the count of the various blood cells are done. The abnormality is that the count is too many or too low.
2. Blood protein testing (electrophoresis) – This test basically examines the various protein in the body and can help in detecting the abnormal ones which will be there due to the presence of the cancer. Other test is also done to confirm the cancer, like bone marrow in case of blood cancer.
3. Tumor marker tests- Tumor cells made some chemicals known as tumor markers that can be measured in body but some normal cells also do the same. Thus there are limitations to this test.

Blood is essential part of body. It has different components which are RBC, WBC, Platelets and Plasma. Plasma is the liquid part of blood. RBC is also called as monocytes and the WBC as the lymphoid. Lymphoid are more affected by diseases in children. Blood cancer is also called as Leukemia, which actually disturbs the normal functioning of the blood and in the end weakens the whole system. It is of two types Acute or Chronic. Both blood and urine test are conducted to get the insight about the disease. This is very important to know the stage of the disease.

Causes

There are various reasons due to which a person can fall prey to the cancer of the blood. These are

Weakened immune system – this may be happen to a person because of variety of reasons such as the use of drugs in case of any other disease, radiations such as radiotherapy and disease which directly affect the immune system such as HIV.

Contact with the chemicals which primarily composed of benzene like petrol and other solvents used in rubber industry, for a long period of time.

Also certain genetic disorders also are the reasons for this like Fanconi anemia.

Treatment

There are varieties of way by which this problem can be addressed. There are many theories involved in this to cure the disease. First is to destroy the blood cancer cells and another is to stimulate the growth of new blood cells in the body. The type of treatment is dependent of your case history and current situation.

Radio immunotherapy is used on the first theory. In this an immunotoxic is injected in the patient’s body. Immunotoxic is primarily a hybrid molecule formed by an antibody coupled with a toxin. The antibody in the immunotoxic locks on the cancerous cells protein and delivers the toxin to the cell. In this way the cancerous cells are removed in the precise way and the side-effect on the other body part is almost negligible.

There are medicines which are based on the second theory. These are termed as growth factors. They stimulate your body to produce more blood cells. This type of treatment must be follow with the advice of doctors because medications have both the good and bad effects. It depends on your current stage which a doctor knows better. So consult the doctor before taking any treatment.