Is Blood Cancer Curable?
There are few diseases more concerning for people than blood cancer. However,
panicking over it will never be of any kind of help. By treating it properly, blood
cancer can be cured.
What can be more important to life than flowing blood? Blood flow is one of the measures that
we use to determine liveliness. Blood circulates all across our body and passes oxygen and some
other type of nutrients to all the body cells. It works as the primary barrier of the body against
threats and diseases that come from external sources. Thus, it contributes to keeping all these
cells safe and alive.
Nothing can make or substitute blood. That’s why blood cancer, where the body can’t generate
healthy blood cells, could get serious if not detected at the right time.
What is Blood Cancer?
Blood cancer is a problem in the function or process of blood development. It affects the
production of the blood cells, which later function abnormally. Normally, the reason for blood
cancer is rooted in the bone marrow, where blood cells get produced.
A type of spongy tissue named stem cells in the bone marrow can develop into a blood cell. As
you know, our blood is made of three types of blood cells: Red blood cells, white blood cells,
and platelets. These three components flow on the stream of plasma. A stem cell divide, mature,
and eventually ends up being one of these three blood cells.
Some specific problems in this process called “differentiation” beget cancer. Because of these
problems, stem cells produce immature blood cells unable to do their job properly. Such
abnormal blood cell production is called blood cancer.
Depending on the time and process of those problems’ progress, blood cancers can be of several
types.
Types of Blood Cancer?
Human blood is made of three types of blood cells, and each of them is assigned to do different
tasks.
Red Blood Cells: These cells absorb oxygen and deliver it to all tissues of the body and organs.
They also absorb carbon dioxide from those tissues and carry it to the lungs. We breathe this
carbon dioxide out later.
White Blood Cells: They fight diseases and infections as a part of the human immune system.
Platelets: Platelets are mainly liable to blood clotting when exposed to the air.
The stem cell of a bone marrow grows and develops into one of these perfectly functional blood
cells. Cancer causes the lymphatic system and bone marrow to create blood cells that deviate
from the normal one by their nature and functions.
Depending on their affecting cells and the reasons that derive them, blood cancers can be divided
into three major types:
Leukemia: Leukemia is the type of cancer that triggers a rapid and abnormal production of
blood cells. It always occurs in the bone marrow. All these abnormal blood cells affect the bone
marrow. Hence, it loses its ability to generate healthy platelets and red blood cells.
Lymphoma: It directly affects the lymphatic system. This system is liable to remove additional
fluids that produce extra lymphocytes, which are a part of the human immune system, and fights
infection. Cancer-affected lymphocytes transform into lymphoma cells, and they swell in lymph
nodes and different other tissues.
Lymphoma can be classified into two types:
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma
Hodgkin lymphoma
Myeloma: Myeloma impacts the plasma cells, a type of white blood cells, which produces
different antibodies that fight diseases in a body. Myeloma abnormalizes the generation of
plasma cells and makes the immune system week.
Is blood cancer curable?
It is good news when it comes to blood cancer that the disease is curable, and the curability rate
is quite high. With approaching cancer at the right time with the right medication and treatment,
most patients can be cancer-free completely.
The advancement of the medical sector and years of experiments and researches on the field in
the associated field have improved the survival chances of blood cancer patients. As stated in a
National Institutes of Health report, over two-thirds of people diagnosed with leukemia have the
probability of living over five years. The rate of this curability gets even higher when the cancers
are of Hodgkin or non-Hodgkin types. The rate of curability for such cancers is 80% and 70%,
respectively.
When is Blood Cancer Curable?
One key fact about blood cancer curability is it completely depends on the cancer type, the
current stage of cancer, and the patient’s age. If the disease is still in its primary stage and low in
intensity or severity, the probability for its cure rises. So, these are the factors on which the
chance of cure for blood cancer depends.
If not curable, still there is a chance for cancer like myeloma or acute lymphocytic leukemia to
be controlled effectively, allowing patients to live regular and productive lives for many years.
Still, as long as the cancer is in the context, it would be best to expect the unexpected. Because
there are numerous cases where patients with high risk have survived and continue with their
lives for a long time. On the other hand, children with leukemia have died at their early age.
Whether a form or type of blood cancer could be cured or not also relies greatly on patients’
genetic factors.
Nowadays, for the availability of specific oral medicine, cancers like chronic myelogenous
leukemia have become like other chronic diseases as hypertension and diabetes. Among such
chronic cancers, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, which largely affects children, has achieved an
optimum curability rate.
Blood Cancer Treatment
The treatment of blood cancers generally aims to eliminate or restrain abnormal cell generation.
Thus, the generation of normal blood cells can be facilitated. Such a level of efficacy could be
achieved with intensive chemotherapy.
Chemotherapy: In this treatment procedure, medicines like intravenous antibiotics are injected
into people’s veins. Chemotherapy can be hopefully effective in chronic leukemia treatment.
Such treatment can be highly intensive and have manageable, significant, and temporary side
effects. Its treatment also requires platelet and blood transfusion.
For the frailer patients, especially the old people who don’t have enough strength to tolerate a
curative treatment, palliative one can improve the quality of their lives. Most of these treatments
involve mild chemotherapy with supportive medicines.
Stem cell transfusion: It is well known as stem cell transplant. This treatment is offered to a
patient when relapsing is more expected, or the disease has already returned after successful
treatment. In most cases, the prior treatment given was chemotherapy.
The procedure of this treatment initiates with giving the patient an excessive dose of
chemotherapy or exposure to radiation so as to eradicate all the cancer cells simultaneously with
the blood formation system.
Then a new blood generation system is developed by infusing blood seed or stem cells. These
cells can be collected from a healthy donor or even the patient himself.
Radiation Therapy: This type of therapy is mostly used for eliminating abnormally formed
cells or relieving pain or discomfort. Even this step can be followed by stem cell transplantation
to get better results.
So, blood cancer, now, should not be sound as horrific as it sounded before. It is definitely not
something to leave desire of living and hope. It could be a beginning of a tough fight, but there
are numerous examples of people who have won that find already. So, it’s possible to cure blood
cancer.
References
1. Hematology
https://www.hematology.org/education/patients/blood-cancers
2. NHS UK
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stem-cell-transplant/#:~:text=Stem%20cells%20are%20special
%20cells,cells%20%E2%80%93%20which%20help%20fight%20infection
3. Yale Medicine
https://www.yalemedicine.org/conditions/blood-cancers#:~:text=Because%20treatments
%20for%20blood%20cancer,cancers%20are%20now%20highly%20treatable.
4. Jennifer Robinosn
https://www.webmd.com/cancer/lymphoma/types-and-differences
