“Cancer of the blood” occurs when one of the types of blood cells, which are produced in our bone marrow (the soft tissue inside our bones) grow in an uncontrolled and abnormal way.¹

There are three types of blood cells; red blood cells (which deliver oxygen to the body), white blood cells (which help fight infection and disease) and platelets (which help the blood to clot and therefore prevent us from bleeding). ¹

Blood cancers are the fifth most common form of cancer in New Zealand. Lymphoma is the most commonly diagnosed blood cancer in New Zealand and approximately 21,000 New Zealand people are living with blood cancer.

When something is wrong with your blood, it can affect your overall health, and if left untreated symptoms commonly impact day to day life. A general practitioner will likely refer you to a haematologist for diagnosis, treatment and management of your condition.

A haematologist is a specialist doctor who treats blood-related disorders and cancers. Find out more about Icon’s haematologists.

There are many different types of blood disorders and blood cancers. Common blood cancers include leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma.

Icon diagnose and treat all types of blood cancers, including:

• Leukaemia – predominantly affects the white blood cells. There are different types of leukaemia, depending on what type of white blood cell is affected (either myeloid or lymphoid) and whether it is fast growing (acute) or relatively slow growing (chronic).⁷ Based on this simple categorisation, there are four types of leukaemia (see below), although in modern classification systems, leukaemia is split into many more sub-types:⁷
  • Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL)
  • Chronic lymphoblastic leukaemia (CLL)
  • Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML)
  • Chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML)

• Lymphoma – is a type of blood cancer that describes cancers that originate in the lymphatic system, the cancer cells being derived from a cell called a lymphocyte, which is part of the immune system.¹⁰  There are two main types of lymphoma:⁸
  • Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) – is rarer than non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and accounts for less than 10% of all lymphoma cases in Australia.⁹
  • Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) – accounts for approximately 90% of lymphomas

• Myeloma – is a malignancy of the plasma cells, a specialised type of white blood cell that usually resides within the bone marrow. It is also known as multiple myeloma, plasma cell myeloma or myelomatosis with generally there being multiple sites of disease found at diagnosis.¹¹