What Is Blood Cancer?
Blood cancer (haematological malignancies) is cancer that affects blood, lymph nodes and bone marrow. Commonly referred to as lymphoma, this cancer is one that attacks cells which don’t divide correctly. Your body needs to produce new cells all the time and blood cancer occurs when those cells divide too much, mutating and creating tumours.
There are two kinds of lymphoma tumours: Hodgkin’s and non-Hodgkin’s. 1,600 people are diagnosed with Hodgkin’s every year and it doesn’t differ much from non-Hodgkin’s. The only difference is that the former has a certain cell (the Reed-Sternberg cell) that can be seen in the blood of someone with Hodgkin’s.
Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is more prevalent with 11,500 cases diagnosed every year. It is the fifth most common cancer in the UK. Some of the causes of both types of lymphoma can include; exposure to rare bacteria, family history, weak immune system, autoimmune disease and having previously suffered from cancer.
Symptoms for lymphoma can be far reaching and include; swelling around a lymph node that isn’t sore, prolonged chest problems, prolonged stomach pain, tiredness, sudden increase in bruising and problems fighting infection.
Here at the LOC we can provide the best possible private blood cancer treatments, using the most advanced technologies available in the world and access to medicines currently unavailable on the NHS.