What is blood cancer?
Blood
cancer is also called as leukemia. This is a disease which
unfortunately, is not very rare. Within a population of 1,00,000 about
2-5 individuals will get blood cancer every year. In fact, there is some
suggestion that the frequency of blood cancer might be increasing in
the community.
There
are many different types of leukemias and they are seen in people of
all age groups. However, one type called acute lymphoblastic leukemia
(ALL) is more common in children. There are several other types such as
acute meyloid leukemia (AML) which are commoner in adults.
Our
bone marrow is present in the bones. This is the factory where blood
cells are normally made. There are three different kinds of blood cells;
red blood cells (RBCs), white blood cells (WBCs) and platelets.
Blood
cancer arises when one of the normal stem cells in the marrow becomes
cancerous. A cancer cell multiplies uncontrollably to form billions of
leukemia cells. These are called blasts. These blast cells spread
throughout the bone marrow and soon start circulating in the blood.
The
rapidly growing cancer cells replace the normal bone marrow. Due to
this the marrow is not able to produce any normal RBCs, WBCs or
platelets. Patients soon develop problems from the deficiency of these
normal blood cells.
These symptoms of blood cancer are:
- Low RBCs, which lead to low hemoglobin and hence symptoms of anemia, such as fatigue and inability to carry out routine daily activities.
- Low WBC, which are the soldiers of our body, lead to infections. Infections commonly occur in the lungs, causing pneumonia.
- Low platelets could lead to bleeding from the gums, urine, bowels and also the skin.
After donating blood some people may have giddiness. But this goes away
in a short period of time. The doctors who are conducting the blood
donation will check the donor for fitness. If the donor is healthy there
are usually no problems. Blood can be safely donated every 3-6 months. I
myself donate blood every 3 months and it gives me a lot of
satisfaction to do so. So happy donatin
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