Signs of Blood Cancer

Blood cancer has indirect and surprising symptoms. These are the most common ones.

Extreme bruising                                 

Unexplained bruising that seems not to come out of any hit or injury can be a warning sign of blood cancer like leukemia. That’s because unnecessary bruising usually occurs when the body has a low platelet count, a sign that could point to a blood disorder.

Excessive bleeding

Unexplained bleeding that doesn’t stop easily is another symptom of leukemia. Excessive bleeding happens when your blood can’t clot properly and is one of the silent symptoms of leukemia you shouldn’t ignore.

Fatigue

While you may write-off your exhaustion to a busy schedule or stressful workload, continuous fatigue that isn’t getting better deserves a visit to your doctor to prevent something more serious. When you’re not able to produce healthy red blood cells you can develop anemia. This results in fatigue and low energy.

Fever

Because the bodies of people with leukemia aren’t able to produce healthy white blood cells, frequent infections are a very common presenting symptom. You may feel like you have a cold or the flu, but what will make it show up from a standard illness is if you have a fever of 102°F or higher. A high fever in an adult is not normal. Also, most cold and viruses run through our system in about three to five days, so anything well past that should be discussed with your doctor. Moreover, these infections don’t tend to improve with antibiotics.  

Specific rashes

Clinically referred to as mycosis fungoides, this lymphoma-specific rash happens when malignant cells in the blood travel to the skin showing up as a rough, itchy appearance on the body. This isn’t to say that every rash that pops up on your skin is a cause for concern, but if it’s a persistent problem that’s not getting better with current medication over time your doctor may refer you to an oncologist for diagnosis.

Swollen lymph nodes

Painless swelling in your neck, armpits, or groin area can be a sign of blood cancer. Your lymph nodes contain white blood cells that help your body fight infection and disease but when these lymph nodes swell—and stay swollen—without any other symptom, it may be a sign of blood cancer like lymphoma that originates in the lymph nodes or cancer that has spread to them.

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