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1.2 Million People Are Diagnosed With This Cancer Annually – Here's The Signs You Need To Know
The main cancers of the blood are leukaemia, lymphoma, and myeloma but there are actually 100 different types of blood cancers and every year, 1.2 million people are diagnosed with blood cancer with 650,000 people dying worldwide annually from it.
Blood cancers are so prevalent in fact that in the UK alone, every 20 minutes somebody is diagnosed with a blood cancer and more than 7,500 children in the UK suffer from a blood cancer.
Blood cancers are the third most common cancer death in the UK and while these statistics are frightening, there is a lot of promising research and work being done to tackle the diseases.
Blood Stem Cell DonationsDKMS, an international charity dedicated to the fight against blood cancer and blood disorders, have been working hard to tackle these deadly cancers and so far, more than 105,000 "second chances at life" have been enabled by the charity and the blood stem cell donations that they facilitate.
While this is incredible, there is an urgent need for more blood stem cell donations in the UK. Despite blood cancers being so prevalent, only around 3% of the UK population is registered to be potential stem cell donors.
Luke Bugdol, a donor to DKMS said:
"I was inspired to register to DKMS after I left the navy, when a friend of mine had cancer. Unfortunately, they did not make it - and he's not the first person in my life that I have lost to cancer… Two years later, I received a telephone call saying I was a match to somebody in need and I immediately wanted to help. I instantly felt great knowing I had helped a total stranger."
Signs Of Blood CancerIf you're worried you may have a blood cancer, Blood Cancer UK state that the symptoms to look out for are:
If you're looking to register as a blood stem cell donor, visit the DKMS website.
Ovarian Cancer Stages: Survival Rates And Life Expectancy
Like other cancers, survival rates become lower as ovarian cancer progresses.
If you are living with ovarian cancer, you're probably wondering about your prognosis. While knowing your prognosis can be helpful, it's important to know that it's only a general guideline. Your individual outlook will depend on many factors, such as your age and overall health.
Read on to learn more about the 5-year survival rates for different ovarian cancer stages and what the numbers mean.
The 5-year relative survival rate for all types of ovarian cancer is 49.1 percent.
People with ovarian cancer will have one of three types of tumors. The type of tumor you have will impact your outlook.
About 90 percent of ovarian cancers involve epithelial tumors. Stromal tumors represent about 5 percent of ovarian tumors, while germ cell tumors are significantly rarer.
Early detection generally results in a better outlook. When diagnosed and treated in stage 1, the 5-year relative survival rate is 94 percent. Only about 20% of ovarian cancers are diagnosed in stage 1.
In this article, we will also cover survival rates for fallopian tube cancer. Doctors often treat this in the same way as ovarian cancer.
Both the stage and the type of ovarian cancer factor into your individual outlook. There are multiple methods doctors use to define cancer stages.
The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registry program of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) is the authoritative source on cancer survival in the United States. It collects comprehensive information for different types of cancer in populations within the country.
The SEER registry can help you better understand the rate of survival for your stage of ovarian cancer for each year after diagnosis.
The SEER registry uses a simplified approach to staging. It roughly correlates with other staging systems as follows:
Since fewer women have stage 1 or "localized" ovarian cancer, the overall prognosis for regional or distant disease can be broken down by year since diagnosis.
For example, factoring in all tumor types, for women with distant spread (or stage 4 disease) of ovarian cancer, the percentage of women in the U.S. Population surviving 1 year is over 69%.
For more details, including a visual graph, see the SEER registry of survival rates for ovarian cancer by stage and time since diagnosis.
The exact type of ovarian cancer you have can also affect your survival rate.
The 5-year survival rates for epithelial ovarian cancer The 5-year survival rates for ovarian stromal tumors The 5-year survival rates for ovarian germ cell tumors The 5-year survival rates for fallopian tube cancerOne of the first things you'll want to know is the stage of your ovarian cancer. Staging is a way of describing how far the cancer has spread and can indicate how aggressive your cancer is. Knowing the stage helps your cancer care team formulate a treatment plan and gives you some idea of what to expect.
As well as the above SEER stages, doctors can determine ovarian cancer stages using the FIGO (International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics) staging system.
This system defines ovarian cancer in one of four stages and takes into account:
Doctors can more accurately determine the size of the primary tumor through surgery. Accurate staging is important in helping you and your cancer care team understand the chances that your cancer treatment will be curative.
Stage 1In stage 1, the cancer has not spread beyond the ovaries, according to the American Cancer Society.
Stage 1A means the cancer is only in one ovary. In stage 1B, the cancer is in both ovaries.
Stage 1C means that one or both ovaries contain cancer cells, and one of the following situations is also found:
In stage 2 ovarian cancer, the cancer is in one or both ovaries and has spread to elsewhere within the pelvis.
Stage 2A means it has gone from the ovaries to the fallopian tubes, the uterus, or to both.
Stage 2B indicates the cancer has migrated to nearby organs like the bladder, sigmoid colon, or rectum.
Stage 3In stage 3 ovarian cancer, the cancer is found in one or both ovaries, as well as in the lining of the abdomen, or it has spread to lymph nodes in the abdomen.
In Stage 3A, the cancer is found in other pelvic organs and in lymph nodes within the abdominal cavity (retroperitoneal lymph nodes) or in the abdominal lining.
Stage 3B is when the cancer has spread to nearby organs within the pelvis. Cancer cells may be found on the outside of the spleen or liver or in the lymph nodes.
Stage 3C means that larger deposits of cancer cells are found outside the spleen or liver, or that it has spread to the lymph nodes.
Stage 4Stage 4 is the most advanced stage of ovarian cancer. It means the cancer has spread to distant areas or organs in your body.
In stage 4A, cancer cells are present in the fluid around the lungs.
Stage 4B means that it has reached the inside of the spleen or liver, distant lymph nodes, lungs, and bones.
Doctors base ovarian cancer survival statistics on the stage in which ovarian cancer was first diagnosed.
They are estimates and don't take into account factors that may improve your outlook, such as your age, overall health, and how well your cancer responds to treatment.
Because these statistics relate to people who were diagnosed with ovarian cancer at least 5 years previously, treatments have improved since then, so their outlook may be better today.
The general trend has been lower numbers of new cases, about 1 to 2 percent each year between the 1980s and 2017. Analysis of outcomes has also shown better survival rates — an increase of 1 to 2 percent per year between 2009 and 2018.
Relative 5-year survival rate estimates the percentage of people with cancer who will survive 5 years after diagnosis, in relation to the general populace.
Researchers calculate the number by dividing the percentage of patients with cancer who survive the period, by the percentage of the general population of the same sex and age who are also alive at the end of the 5 years.
Honest talks with your healthcare professionals will help you make informed decisions about your treatment for ovarian cancer.
These are some of the questions to ask your cancer care team:
Keep in mind that ovarian cancer survival rates are estimates and do not take into account other factors that may affect your personal outlook.
Your cancer care team can determine your most effective treatment options based on the stage and type of your ovarian cancer when it is first diagnosed.
Experts Renew Concerns Over Delayed Cancer Diagnoses
Screenings that were delayed due to COVID-19 are likely to contribute to an exponential increase in cancer diagnosis totals over the next few years, experts say.
During the pandemic, while COVID-19 cases climbed, many chose to delay routine screenings and appointments to avoid catching the virus, but now those put-off appointments are catching up to them — and to the healthcare system.
To quantify just how many cases may have been missed, researchers from Boston University compared pre-pandemic diagnosis levels for certain cancers to 2020 incidents. They found that there were 18.1 percent fewer diagnoses of lung cancer, 14.6 percent fewer for breast cancer, and 18.2 percent fewer for colorectal cancer.
"The incidence for all these cancers decreased, but there's no reason to believe that cancer incidence dropped during the pandemic in 2020. The data we observe is not likely due to decreasing incidence rates, but I think more likely reflective of missing cancer diagnoses," Kelsey Romatoski, MD, author of the study published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons and general surgery resident at Boston Medical Center said in a statement. "These missed diagnoses are likely going to lead to delays in treatment and upstaging of disease in the coming years."
Their findings suggest there may be many who "currently harbor undiagnosed cancers" they wrote. The delay is particularly concerning to healthcare workers because an influx of future cases and treatments all at once could overburden an already strained system.
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