You've been told you have blood cancer. What does that mean? What's going to happen to you?
Getting told you have a cancer must be one of the scariest, most daunting things that can happen to anyone. It's easy (and understandable) to let your mind race straight to the worst case scenarios, and to not focus on where you actually are at that point in time.
For me, once I was told I had a blood cancer it was important to know more about what that meant and what my upcoming treatment might look like. Here's a bit of basic information I discovered as I researched the subject.
Types Of Blood Cancer
There are 3 main categories of blood cancer - leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. Each of these categories can be sub-divided into more specific cancers;
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)
Acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL)
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML)
Hodgkin lymphoma
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma
Multiple myeloma (MM)
These are the most common kinds of blood cancer, there are many more less common kinds as well.
Causes Of Blood Cancer
Every cancer has a slightly different way that it starts and develops, but in general all blood cancers occur when the DNA within our healthy blood cells mutates for some reason. These mutated cells multiply and the 'faulty' blood cells interfere with the normal working of a healthy bloodstream. There does not seem to be a hereditary component to blood cancer, meaning it isn't passed on from parent to child etc.
How Common Is Blood Cancer?
Taking all blood cancers together, it is the 5th most common type of cancer in the UK, and the 3rd largest killer of people amongst cancers, making it much more deadly per capita than some other cancers.
There are about 40,000 people diagnosed with a blood cancer each year in the UK, and around 16,000 people die from blood cancer each year in the UK. In total there are around 250,000 people in the UK living with a blood cancer at any one time.
Symptoms Of Blood Cancer
Each blood cancer has its own specific set of symptoms, but in general you should look out for;
Weight loss
Excessive and unexpected bruising
Tiredness and/or fatigue
Repeated infections and/or fevers
Pain in the bones and/or joints
What About My Blood Cancer - Multiple Myeloma?
I obviously was most interested in finding out about my particular cancer, multiple myeloma.
MM affects around 4,500 people per year in the UK and around 2,500 people die from it every year. The 5 year survival rate for blood cancers overall is about 70% (for breast cancer and prostate cancer that figure is over 80%) but for MM that number is less than 50%, making it one of the deadliest cancers there is.
MM is a disease of the white blood plasma cells, affecting the bone marrow. The main symptoms are bone degeneration (especially in the spine), high levels of calcium in the blood, kidney damage and anaemia. I certainly had all those!
Treatment For Blood Cancer
Depending on the type, stage and severity of the cancer there are a number of options used to treat blood cancer.
The main course of treatment is usually chemotherapy using a combination of different cancer drugs. This can be through intravenous infusion and also via oral tablets. For most patients initially that requires a weekly visit as an out patient to the hospital for any IV treatment, with daily oral tablets through the rest of the week. Chemotherapy tends to be given in 4 week cycles, sometimes with breaks in between. Whilst chemo is effective at killing cancer cells it also damages healthy cells and is very stressful on the body, causing lots of pretty unpleasant side effects.
Other kinds of treatment depending on the patient's needs also include immunotherapy, radiotherapy and stem cell transplant.
Next Time, And Please Comment, Ask Me Anything, And Subscribe For Free
In my next blog I'll talk about the treatment protocol I was given, the drugs I was prescribed and how a 'normal' week on chemotherapy looks and feels. In the meantime, thank you for taking the time to read this blog, please feel free to message me, ask me any questions you have, or comment on what you have read so far. You can subscribe to my blog for free so that you get a notification whenever I add a new blog.
Wishing you all Peace and Love.
Keith
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