The cause is usually different from other types of cancer. The way to find out if a person has this cancer is also different.
People with blood cancers see a kind of doctor called a hematologist (blood doctor) or oncologist (cancer doctor). There are other blood problems that are not blood cancers. A blood doctor also helps people with those problems.
A doctor will do some tests to find out if a person has a blood cancer. One common test is a complete blood count. The cells that circulate in the bloodstream are generally divided into three types: white blood cells (leukocytes), red blood cells (erythrocytes), and platelets (thrombocytes). The relative proportions is what picks up indications of a problem.
Sometimes the doctor will take a very small piece of the body out, to look at it. This is called a biopsy. Bone marrow is where new blood is made in the body. A bone marrow biopsy looks at the blood-making parts to see if they have cancer.
Thousands of people get blood cancers. Each year, 30,000 people in the United Kingdom (UK) learn that they have blood cancer.
Lymphomas are more common than leukemias.
References
↑Vardiman J.W. et al 2009 (2009). "The 2008 revision of the World Health Organization (WHO) classification of myeloid neoplasms and acute leukemia: rationale and important changes". Blood. 114 (5): 937–51. doi:10.1182/blood-2009-03-209262. PMID19357394. S2CID3101472.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
