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Treatment for Blood Cancer

Blood cancers are cancers that affect the blood, bone marrow and lymph nodes. Since the blood and lymph nodes are constantly supplying healing materials to the entire body, these cancers can be difficult to treat. Yet there are effective methods to treat blood cancer such as radiation, chemotherapy or immunotherapy.

  1. Chemotherapy

    • Chemotherapy is the treatment procedure mostly used for leukemia. Lymph nodes, located throughout the body, provide the immune cells needed to fight off the body's invaders such as harmful bacteria or cancer. Cancer in the lymph nodes can severely impact the immune system. Chemotherapy works by providing cancer-seeking synthetic medications that alter the cancer cell's DNA, causing it to stop or slow down growth so that healthy immune cells can destroy them. Treatment is often three to five times a week for six weeks. Chemotherapy, however, comes with notable side effects such as hair loss, extreme fatigue and a sometimes compromise of otherwise healthy lymph nodes.

    Radiation

    • Radiation therapy has proven to be an effective treatment for bone marrow cancer because bone marrow is very sensitive to it. Radiation therapy involves doctors exposing cancerous areas to radiation via a specialized external beam or internal submission of radioactive material. The benefit is that radiation therapy can be localized to the affected area only, reducing exposure risks to surrounding tissue. The radiation can shrink tumors and slowly destroy cancer cells. Intensely Modulated Radiation Therapy uses computer programs to reach difficult areas by applying doses at three-dimensional levels, providing even more accuracy at higher, more effective doses.

    Immunotherapy

    • Sometimes the best way to combat blood cancers is to boost the existing immune system. Specially formulated vaccines are injected into the body at regular intervals. These are considered less toxic than chemotherapy or radiation therapy, which can sometimes damage normally healthy cells. Cancer cells that invade the lymph system can often disguise themselves from white blood cells. Immunotherapy is essentially reprogramming white blood cells to find them. This information is shared with the B-Cell antibodies. These B-cells mature and secrete other antibodies that coat cancer cells and invade their DNA. Immunotherapy also kills cancer cells by enhancing certain T-cell functions. For example, some T-cells can be programmed to hunt foreign cells by searching for specific cell markers and injuring them. Other T-cells called Natural Killer cells find infected cells and inject them with powerful chemicals.

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