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Blood Cancer

Center for Cancer Care at St. Luke's Hospital Menu
Call 314-205-6737
Call 314-205-6737

Expert Care for Leukemia, Lymphoma and Myeloma

Blood cancer is cancer that affects the blood cells and how they work. Blood cancer also affects bone marrow (the soft tissue in the center of the bones). Bone marrow makes stem cells that become blood cells.

Blood cancers are complex conditions. If you have a form of blood cancer, you need advanced care from a team of specialists. That’s what St. Luke’s Center for Cancer Care provides our patients.

We’re accredited by the Commission on Cancer for our care quality and patient outcomes. We offer complete imaging services, often started weeks faster than other centers, to get you the care you need sooner. Our world-class team sees patients from throughout the region who are referred to us for our expertise in treating blood cancers. When appropriate, we offer access to clinical trials with treatments not widely available elsewhere. And our team collaborates in tumor boards that meet regularly to ensure patients receive the best possible care options.

How Blood Cancer Works

There are three main types of blood cells:

  • Red blood cells carry oxygen throughout the body and bring carbon dioxide back from the body to the lungs so you can breathe it out
  • Platelets help the blood clot
  • White blood cells fight off infections

Blood cancers mostly affect the white blood cells and the bone marrow cells that produce them, though some cancer types affect red blood cells. Blood cancers can also cause the body to create lower-than-normal amounts of certain blood cell types.

Blood Cancer Types We Treat

There are three main types of blood cancer: leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. Each of these has several subtypes.

Leukemia starts in the bone marrow. It works by creating leukemia cells, also known as blasts. It starts with a mutation (change) in just one of the blood cells growing in the blood marrow. This cell grows and multiplies, eventually taking over the space in your blood marrow.

Over time, the leukemia cells crowd out the healthy blood cells. Eventually, there aren’t enough red blood cells, white blood cells or platelets to help keep you healthy.

There are four main subtypes of leukemia:

  • Acute lymphoblastic leukemia: This condition affects a type of white blood cell called lymphocytes, which help your body fight viruses and bacteria.
  • Acute myeloid leukemia: This condition affects a type of white blood cell called myeloid cells (immature blood cells that can develop into several kinds of mature blood cells).
  • Chronic lymphocytic leukemia: This condition develops when white blood cells called lymphocytes change into cancerous cells, which multiply and crowd out healthy blood cells.
  • Chronic myelogenous leukemia: This condition starts in the myeloid cells, which start multiplying uncontrollably and crowd out healthy blood cells.

 Risk Factors for Leukemia

Leukemia risk factors include:

  • Having treatment for other kinds of cancer
  • Exposure to high levels of radiation or certain chemicals
  • Smoking

Lymphoma is cancer of the lymphatic system (part of the body’s immune system that helps fight infections). It starts in lymphocytes, which are a type of white blood cell.

There are more than 70 subtypes of lymphoma. But there are two main categories of the disease, which depend on the type of lymphocytes:

  • Hodgkin lymphomas: These lymphomas involve Reed-Sternberg cells (a type of larger-than-normal and cancerous white blood cell). Hodgkin lymphomas tend to affect lymph nodes (small organs that filter fluid that drains from the body’s cells and tissues) in the chest, neck, groin, belly or pelvis, as well as under the arms.
  • Non-Hodgkin lymphomas: By contrast, non-Hodgkin lymphomas do not involve Reed-Sternberg cells. These conditions can affect many different areas of the body.

Lymphoma risk factors include:

  • Age (older adults are more likely to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma
  • Exposure to high levels of radiation or certain chemicals, such as herbicides and pesticides

Myeloma starts in the bone marrow and affects plasma cells (also known as plasmacytes, a type of white blood cells that help the body fight off disease). Myeloma is often called multiple myeloma because it can affect multiple sites of bone marrow.

 Risk Factors for Myeloma

Myeloma risk factors include:

  • Age (older adults are more likely to develop myeloma)
  • Having a family history of myeloma
  • Obesity
  • Race (Black people tend to develop myeloma more often than people of other races)
  • Sex (men are more likely to develop myeloma than women)
 

How We Diagnose Blood Cancer

After a thorough physical exam, your doctor will likely order some or all of the following tests

  • Blood tests, including a complete blood count (CBC), blood chemistry test and tests for tumor markers (chemicals in your blood that can be a sign of cancer) and blood protein tests
  • Imaging tests, including computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) scans to look for signs of blood cancers in different areas of the body
  • Examination of blood cells for changes in appearance
  • Biopsies of samples from your bone marrow to look for cancerous cells

Our Blood Cancer Treatment Options

If we determine that you have a type of blood cancer, you and your doctor will discuss your treatment options. Together, you’ll create a customized treatment plan based on your unique condition, needs and goals. Your treatment plan may include:

  • Chemotherapy: Your doctor will prescribe medications to kill the cancerous cells
  • Radiation therapy: We use radiation treatments to damage the DNA of cancerous cells so they can’t multiply or to ease the symptoms of blood cancers
  • Immunotherapy: We offer treatments that can help your immune system either make more disease-fighting cells or better train your immune system to destroy cancerous cells
  • Targeted therapies: These treatments target the mutations that turn healthy cells into cancerous cells
  • Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy: In this treatment, we turn a type of white blood cells called T-cell lymphocytes into CAR T-cells by adding a gene made in a lab. This makes them more effective in finding and destroying cancerous cells. CAR T-cell therapy is an option for treating several types of blood cancer, including myeloma, B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and some types of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, if other treatments haven’t worked.
  • Bone marrow transplant: Your doctor may recommend either storing and transplanting your own healthy bone marrow cells after treatment or transplanting healthy cells from a donor if other treatments aren’t successful.

Blood Cancer Symptoms

The symptoms of blood cancers can vary widely based on the type of cancer involved. Some of the symptoms you may notice include

  • Bruising or bleeding easily
  • Fatigue (feeling tired)
  • Fever or chills
  • Frequent infections
  • Loss of appetite
  • Pain in the bones or joints
  • Sweating a lot, especially at night
  • Swollen lymph nodes
  • Unexplained weight loss

 

Contact the Center for Cancer Care

We’ll help you get the cancer care you need.

Call 314-205-6737