September is Blood Cancer Awareness Month. The disease impacts more than 1.6 million people in the U.S., including both adults and children. We’re shining a spotlight on the causes, symptoms and common types of blood cancer
What is blood cancer?
This group of diseases impacts the way the body produces blood cells and how those cells function. Most blood cancers start in the bone marrow, which is responsible for creating stem cells that mature into red and white blood cells as well as platelets. When cancer disrupts the production of blood cells, the cancer cells overwhelm normal cells, leaving them unable to function normally.
Is there a known cause?
Blood cancer happens due to changes in the body’s DNA, which cause it to create abnormal blood cells. The cause of this mutation is not known, although there are risk factors associated with it. These include:
- Age – The risk increases as you get older.
- Sex – Men are more likely to develop blood cancer.
- Smoking – Research shows that smoking, as well as exposure to second-hand smoke, are associated with an increased risk.
- Previous cancer treatment – Chemotherapy and radiation therapy may increase the risk of developing blood cancer.
- Family history – Some forms of the disease are known to run in families.
- Other medical conditions – Certain autoimmune disease and genetic disorders are associated with greater risk.
Is there anything you can do to reduce your risk?
With the cause of blood cancers being essentially unknown, it is impossible to completely avoid the disease. Even looking at factors associated with increased risk, certain ones, such as age, sex and family history, are unavoidable.
What symptoms are associated with blood cancer?
Symptoms can vary across different types of blood cancer, but some common signs include:
- Fatigue
- Shortness of breath
- Swollen lymph nodes
- Frequent infections
- Bone pain
- Joint pain
- Persistent fever
- Unexplained weight loss
- Unusual bruising or bleeding
How is blood cancer diagnosed?
Your health care provider may make a diagnosis based on a few different tests. Blood tests can be used to check for a high or low blood cell count. A blood chemistry test checks for proteins that can be signs of cancer. A bone marrow biopsy can be done to check for changes in DNA that drive cancer growth as well to analyze if you have abnormal blood cells. Imaging, such as CT scans, MRIs and PET scans, can also be used to detect the disease.
TYPES OF BLOOD CANCER
leukemia
The most common form of blood cancer, it starts in the bone marrow. Most cases of leukaemia originate in developing white cells, but a small number start in red cells or platelets. Leukaemia is the most common form of childhood cancer
lymphoma
The term refers to cancers that develop in the lymphatic system—a circulatory system responsible for draining fluid that has passed out of the blood and into other tissues. Developing white blood cells mutate and multiply without any proper order, forming tumors. These tumors can cause swelling on parts of the body like the lymph nodes. The most common subtypes of lymphoma are Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin.
myeloma
Myeloma typically arises in the bone marrow and impacts certain white blood cells. Tumors often form on different bones in the body. Myeloma cells stimulate other bone marrow cells to remove calcium from the bone, resulting in it becoming weaker and more brittle.
myelodysplastic syndromes (mds)
These types of blood cancer impact the production of normal blood cells in bone marrow. With MDS, blood cells often do not grow properly and die prematurely. This leads to a low number of circulating blood cells, causing people with the disease to be fatigued, more susceptible to infections and more prone to bleeding and bruising easily.
myeloproliferative neoplasms (mpn)
This group of blood cancers cause the bone marrow to produce too many white blood cells, red blood cells or platelets. There are four main types of chronic MPNs, essential thrombocythaemia (ET), polycythaemia vera (PV), primary myelofibrosis (MF) and chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML).
BLOOD CANCER BY THE NUMBERS
- Every 3 minutes, a person in the U.S. is diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma.
- Around every 9 minutes, someone in the U.S. dies from blood cancer, accounting for approximately 157 people each day.
- Leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma caused the deaths of an estimated 57,260 people in the U.S. last year.
- In 2024, blood cancers accounted for more than 9% of new cancer diagnoses.
- An estimated combined total of more than 187,740 people were diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma in 2024.