Blood Cancer

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.

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