Things You Had No Idea Could Cause Blood Cancer

Most blood cancers start in the bone marrow. There, stem cells develop the three types of blood cells circulating in our bodies: red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. Blood cancers are most often the result of the normal cell production process getting interrupted by the sudden and uncontrolled production of abnormal blood cells. Those cancerous cells keep blood from doing what it's meant to do.

There are three main types of blood cancers: leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma. These cancers make up nearly 10% of all cancer diagnoses, and affect both children and adults. In fact, "more than 1.2 million people in the U.S. are either living with or in remission today from a blood cancer," according to the National Foundation for Cancer Research.

Lymphoma makes up about 47% of all blood cancer diagnoses. Most lymphoma diagnoses will be of the non-Hodgkin lymphoma type, which develop from abnormal white blood cells.

All types of lymphoma affect the body's lymphatic system, which produces immune cells, called lymphocytes, and helps the body get rid of excess fluids. Abnormal lymphocytes make up the lymphoma, which collect and multiply in lymph nodes and eventually impair the immune system.

Leukemia is another major type of blood cancer and is diagnosed at a slightly lower rate than lymphoma. Leukemia is caused by bone marrow that is producing abnormal white blood cells too rapidly. This prevents healthy white blood cells from being able to properly fight infections, and keeps bone marrow from producing red cells and platelets, which the body needs for oxygen delivery and other necessary functions.

There are a few kinds of leukemia, which doctors group into acute and chronic types. Children make up a majority of leukemia patients with acute leukemia, which is also its more aggressive form. Chronic leukemia tends to develop more slowly. Both of those categories are broken into myeloid and lymphocytic types.

Myeloma is the third and least common type of the major blood cancers. It's diagnosed when there is the presence of abnormal plasma cells. Myeloma cells prevent plasma — made up of healthy white blood cells — from producing antibodies, which leaves the body unable to fight infections. As with the other cancers, the production of myeloma cells crowds out the production of healthy white and red blood cells.

Researchers are not sure of the exact causes of lymphoma, though recent research has made headway in understanding the changes in DNA structure that causes lymphocytes to become lymphoma cells. Certain mutations affect genes that either trigger tumor growth or suppress it. People can inherit DNA mutations, and there's some evidence suggesting a family history of lymphoma increases your risks for developing the disease.

Some gene changes, especially those related to non-Hodgkin lymphoma, can occur regardless of inherited DNA. Often these acquired genetic changes are the result of radiation exposure. They can also happen with prolonged exposure to certain cancer-causing chemicals.

Family history might also be a risk factor, although rare, for various types of leukemia.

People with Down syndrome are also at in increased risk, leading researchers to consider some types of this blood cancer to be the result of a certain genetic makeup.

Smoking is a risk factor for countless diseases, and blood cancers are no exception. The Mayo Clinic reports that smoking may increase the risk for developing two of the three main types of blood cancer, leukemia and lymphoma. Cigarettes are thought to alter certain DNA structures, which may be why smoking is a risk factor. Smoking appears to not be a risk factor in multiple myeloma.

Some major studies found that people who suffer from celiac disease are at a significantly increased risk for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, particularly if they have "ongoing intestinal damage." In fact, a paper in a 2002 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that "non-Hodgkin lymphoma is a possible complication of celiac disease and may lead to a large portion of lymphoma cases."

Patients living with HIV/AIDS are also at an increased risk for developing non-Hodgkin lymphoma, according to a 2009 paper based on European subjects. However, the paper also found that detecting the blood cancer disease early also increased the survival rates of the study's subjects.

People living with autoimmune disorders are also at an increased risk for lymphoma. This is because their bodies, like blood cancers themselves, are over-producing protection responses and then attacking healthy cells.

Some of the autoimmune disorders connected to lymphoma are Sjögren’s syndrome, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, celiac disease, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. There's also evidence that those with Crohn's disease are at increased risk.

Keep in mind that a vast majority of the sufferers of these diseases do not develop lymphoma or other blood cancers.

Siblings of a child who develops leukemia are at a slightly increased risk for developing the disease themselves. However, an infant identical twin is at a significantly higher risk for developing the blood cancer, especially if the disease develops within the first year of life. Parents who develop leukemia as an adult don't appear to have children with a higher risk for the disease.

As if dealing with chemotherapy for other types of cancer isn't difficult enough, undergoing the necessary treatment also puts patients at an increased risk for certain types of blood cancers, especially ones categorized as myeloma. These rare cancers can appear after successful treatments for tumors and are the result of cell damage during chemotherapy.

Certain blood cancer types are more prominent in men than women. Others crop up according to age. In fact, most types of cancer become more common as you get older, since they're the result of a buildup of abnormal cells.

The numbers break down like this: People between 15 and 40 years old, or those over 55, are more likely to develop Hodgkin lymphoma. Men, too, are more likely in general to be diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, but women are more likely to be diagnosed with a subtype of that disease, called nodular sclerosis.