Blood cancers are serious and life-threatening, but treatments are increasingly saving lives. Prevention, as in most things related to health, is key. But when it comes to blood cancers, not enough is known about what triggers these diseases. Here’s what we do know about blood cancers and their causes.
What is blood cancer?
Lymphoma
Lymphoma makes up about 47% of all blood cancer diagnoses. Most lymphoma diagnoses will be of the non-Hodgkin lymphoma type, which develop from abnormal white blood cells.
All types of lymphoma affect the body’s lymphatic system, which produces immune cells, called lymphocytes, and helps the body get rid of excess fluids. Abnormal lymphocytes make up the lymphoma, which collect and multiply in lymph nodes and eventually impair the immune system.
Leukemia
Leukemia is another major type of blood cancer and is diagnosed at a slightly lower rate than lymphoma. Leukemia is caused by bone marrow that is producing abnormal white blood cells too rapidly. This prevents healthy white blood cells from being able to properly fight infections, and keeps bone marrow from producing red cells and platelets, which the body needs for oxygen delivery and other necessary functions.
There are a few kinds of leukemia, which doctors group into acute and chronic types. Children make up a majority of leukemia patients with acute leukemia, which is also its more aggressive form. Chronic leukemia tends to develop more slowly. Both of those categories are broken into myeloid and lymphocytic types.
Myeloma
Myeloma is the third and least common type of the major blood cancers. It’s diagnosed when there is the presence of abnormal plasma cells. Myeloma cells prevent plasma — made up of healthy white blood cells — from producing antibodies, which leaves the body unable to fight infections. As with the other cancers, the production of myeloma cells crowds out the production of healthy white and red blood cells.
What causes lymphoma?
Researchers are not sure of the exact causes of lymphoma, though recent research has made headway in understanding the changes in DNA structure that causes lymphocytes to become lymphoma cells. Certain mutations affect genes that either trigger tumor growth or suppress it. People can inherit DNA mutations, and there’s some evidence suggesting a family history of lymphoma increases your risks for developing the disease.
Radiation can increase risk
Some gene changes, especially those related to non-Hodgkin lymphoma, can occur regardless of inherited DNA. Often these acquired genetic changes are the result of radiation exposure. They can also happen with prolonged exposure to certain cancer-causing chemicals.
Family history and chromosomes
Family history might also be a risk factor, although rare, for various types of leukemia.
People with Down syndrome are also at in increased risk, leading researchers to consider some types of this blood cancer to be the result of a certain genetic makeup.
