Leukemia & Lymphoma Awareness Month
Not to start out on the bummer-est note of bummer notes but in December of this year, it will have been thirty years since my little sister died of leukemia. Next month, my baby sister and I will mark the first anniversary of our mom’s death—she died of lymphoma. And that, dear reader, is why I feel compelled to write about the importance of this month.
Photo by Brett Sayles: white text on a black letter board read: “Roses are red, violets are blue, cancer sucks"
Blood Cancer Awareness Month—or Leukemia & Lymphoma Awareness Month, depending on where you read or hear about it—is one in a long list of cancer awareness months and weeks and days. It gets lost between the other awareness months that occur in September and the upcoming pink-washing in October. Honestly—even with our family history with blood cancer—I didn’t even know this existed until recently, which speaks to the fact of its necessity, I suppose.
Photo from Cancer Research UK/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0): a diagram showing how different types of blood cells are formed from blood stem cells.
There are three umbrella categories of blood cancers, leukemia and lymphoma being the most well-known; the other, myeloma, you may recognize from those television ads for class action lawsuits, you know the ones: “if you or someone you love have been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, you may be entitled to compensation.”Each category indicates how the cancer functions:
- Leukemia is a cancer of early blood-forming tissues, like bone marrow; “bone marrow makes the cells which will develop into white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets.” (MedlinePlus) Most often, leukemia presents as the rapid proliferation of abnormal white blood cells, though it can occur with other blood cells. The abnormal white blood cells overwhelm the bone marrow and inhibits the production red blood cells, platelets, and other types of white blood cells.
- Lymphoma is caused by abnormal lymphocytes—a type of immune cell—that either produces antigens (the things in your body that make vaccines work) or, ironically, helps your body fight cancer. (Cleveland Clinic) There are two main types, Hodgkin Lymphoma or Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. In both cases, those abnormal lymphocytes accumulate in your lymph nodes and other lymphoid tissues.
- Myeloma is a cancer of the plasma cells; plasma, another type of white blood cell, is responsible for producing antibodies. In myeloma, the plasma cells grow too large, “crowding out normal cells in the bone marrow that make red blood cells, platelets, and other white blood cells.” (CDC)
According to the Leukemia & Lymphoma society, every three minutes, a person in the United States is diagnosed with a blood cancer and “[a]pproximately every 9 minutes, someone in the US dies from a blood cancer.” (LLS) Blood cancers are the third leading cause of cancer deaths in the Unites States and the United Kingdom, behind respiratory and digestive cancers.Those are some rather dire numbers—and there are more where those came from—but, despite the prevalence of blood cancer, more than half of the adults in the UK polled are “unable to name a single blood cancer symptom.” (Blood Cancer UK) And that is why Blood Cancer Awareness Month is so important: “there are no regular health screenings for blood cancer, only the awareness about early warning signs.” (Lybrate) As is the case with all cancers, catching it early improves the rates of recovery but early detection and intervention requires people to be able to recognize the early symptoms.The good news is that treatments for blood cancers have advanced so much that five-year survival rates have more than doubled for folks diagnosed with lymphoma; leukemia’s and myeloma’s five-year survival rates have more than quadrupled since the 1960s, from 14% to 66% and 12% to 55% respectively. And the advancements in treatments don’t just benefit blood cancer patients; in fact, “[n]early every breakthrough in cancer treatment has emerged from…leukemia research.” (LLS) One of the recent advancements that researchers and oncologists are excited about, CAR T-cell therapies—a newer form of immunotherapies—was developed to combat pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and are now being used to treat multiple types of leukemia and lymphoma. (National Cancer Institute) There are currently CAR T-cell therapy studies being done for myeloma, pancreatic cancer, stomach cancer, and a few rarer cancers that can develop in adipose (or fat) cells and in muscles or ligaments. (Mayo Clinic)
Photo by Tara Winstead: Multi-colored letter-shaped magnets, on a yellow background, arranged to spell “cancer doesn’t discriminate.”
Blood cancers, together, are the fifth most common type of cancer in the world. There are approximately 1.5 million people in the US who are living with or are in remission from blood cancers and, worldwide, roughly 1.2 million people are diagnosed with one of these cancers annually. September is a month to honor those people, to remember the ones lost, to raise awareness about these cancers and their early symptoms, to raise funds for research and patient support, and to recruit volunteers. There are many organizations doing really great work for people with blood cancers, through patient support, research, and treatment; there are a few that are very near and dear to my heart because of my family’s experiences: The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Ronald McDonald House, Brown Cancer Center, and Norton Children’s Cancer Institute. And there are so many more that can always use your support through direct donations, indirect donations through programs like AmazonSmile, volunteering, or participating in charity events like Light the Night and Team for Cures 5k:
- Jude’s Comprehensive Cancer Center
- Leukemia Research Foundation
- American Association for Cancer Research
- Lymphoma Research Foundation
- American Cancer Society
- Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation
- and so many more!
There are also other ways to help. Donate plasma and platelets. I donate platelets twice a month and plasma once a month; it’s just a few hours out of your day—you can literally help to save up to three lives while sitting in a chair watching a movie or marathoning a few episodes of that show you’ve been meaning to catch up on! Join the donor registry for Be the Match, all it takes it a little cheek swab and you can be put on the list of potential bone marrow and peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) donors. If you’re matched, PBSC and bone marrow donations are minimally invasive compared just about any other transplant donation and the recovery time is usually pretty short.You can even help just by spreading the word. This is Blood Cancer Awareness Month, after all. Share information about blood cancers and their symptoms. Tweet about Be the Match or a local Light the Night event. Set up a fundraiser on Facebook for your birthday. Buy something for a local cancer treatment center off of their Amazon Wishlist. There are so many ways, many of them very simple, to show up for people with and recovering from blood cancers year-round, but especially this month.I’m not going to wrap this up with an energetic huddle break: “let’s go cure blood cancer!” That’s not my style and all of the organizations I’ve listed above, and more, have already said it anyway. Instead, I want to take a moment to honor the people I’ve lost, as well as those lost around the world to blood cancer—sometimes, they get lost in the midst of inspirational stories of recovery and remission. These folks deserved to be remembered for who they are and the good they put into the world, but also for their contribution to blood cancer research—even though I lost both of them, Mom and Missy were treated in learning hospitals and received new, sometimes experimental, treatments; they are a part of the stories of other’s successful treatments and recoveries. Thank you.Okay, I lied—I’ll end with a little bit of a peppy huddle break: “we can be the helpers!” Because there is hope. There are strides made every day. Let’s be a part of maintaining that hope.
Photo by Vijay Kumar: The hands of two people meet to form a heart shape.
Take care of yourselves and take care of each other.