Understanding blood cancer
Blood cancer is a term that's used to describe many different types of cancer that can affect your blood, bone marrow or lymphatic system. It happens when something goes wrong with the development of your blood cells.
General information
There are lots of possible signs and symptoms of blood cancers like leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma.
Blood cancer is a type of cancer that affects your blood cells. Over 40,000 people are diagnosed with a blood cancer each year in the UK, and over 250,000 people are currently living with blood cancer.
Tests can help work out whether someone has blood cancer. They also help diagnose what type of blood cancer it is, such as leukaemia, lymphoma, myeloma or any other type.
After you’ve been diagnosed with blood cancer, you may want to know more about your prognosis (outcome) – in other words, what may happen in the future.
There are a range of different treatments for blood cancer. You might have one type of treatment or a number of them, depending on the type of blood cancer you have.
Read about the different types of treatment for blood cancer
Side effects are the unwanted effects of blood cancer treatment. We also have information about coping with symptoms of blood cancer, even if you're not having treatment. Some of these will be temporary and will stop during or after your treatment but others can last longer.
There are certain things it's important to know about in order to stay safe while being treated for blood cancer, such as avoiding infection and certain vaccinations.
Some people with blood cancer don't need treatment straight away – and some never need it. 'Watch and wait' is a way of monitoring these people with regular check-ups and blood tests. You may also hear it called ‘active surveillance’ or ‘watchful waiting’.
