Blood cancers make up about 10% of all new cancer diagnosis

Cancers including leukemia,

lymphoma,

and myeloma make them about 10% of all new cancer diagnosis.

That's according to the National Foundation for Cancer Research,

and that is today's Health Watch.

Yeah,

so here with us today is Dr. Tara Gregory,

hematologist,

oncologist and medical director at the Colorado Blood Cancer Institute.

We are so excited that you're here with us today.

Thank you so much for having me.

I really appreciate it.

Absolutely!

Well,

first of all,

how is blood cancer different than other cancers?

Blood cancer is very different than other cancers in

terms of the way that we screen for it.

First of all,

many cancers you have routine screening like colonoscopies,

mammograms,

as you know,

blood cancer is one of those insidious

diseases.

Either people are diagnosed just happenstance by

seeing their primary care doctor,

getting some blood count,

something looks a little bit off,

or they can become very ill and end up in an emergency room in an urgent care center.

Yeah,

talk about those symptoms real quick.

What are the symptoms that people can look out

for and are there any early warning signs?

Sure,

definitely. I think in blood cancer it's important to know your body

how you normally

feel. We're specifically looking at people who are losing a lot of weight rapidly,

20

pounds without trying in a month.

It

can be severe sweats and I know a lot of us sweat at

night.

However,

we're talking about drenching sweats,

changing our clothes,

changing the

sheets,

those are some of the big things.

Fatigue,

not being able to get out and do the things that you enjoy,

or even,

you know,

used to be able to mow the yard,

no problem,

have to do that and go in and take a nap.

Okay,

great,

yeah,

it's great information.

What's

the treatment for those who have blood cancers and what's the survival rate?

Our treatments have

just been exploding over the last couple of years.

What I do today is not what I did 2 years ago,

and

each of those different cancers that

you mentioned have very specific different treatments.

I would see the newest thing that we're doing in blood cancer

is that we're looking at how to involve own immune systems

and recognizing our cancers and fighting them off.

And so, we're calling that immune effector cell therapy,

and that's become one of the most

high growth areas in treatment right now.

Now for those that have been diagnosed or

perhaps people that want to prevent this from happening,

is there may be like a recommended diet that people

can use or for even for treatments?

That's a great question.

Right now we have about 1.5 million patients in the

United States living with some form of blood cancer,

either

active or in remission.

What we do know in terms of diet,

both

for prevention and then for

maintaining your health

while

you're in treatment is as close as you can get to the Mediterranean diet.

So, rotating proteins,

lean proteins,

whole

grains,

really

moderate or reduced

on

wine intake,

that

sort of thing.

Very interesting.

Where

can we find more information about blood cancers?

The Leukemia Lymphoma Society has a fantastic website.

They

also have a program where they can connect patients

with

other patients who have gone through treatments similar to

what they'll go through and match them up together

so that they have that personal resource as well.

Very insightful,

Dr. Gregory.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Thanks so much for having me.

I appreciate it.

Of course.

And if you want to see this interview or other Health Watch interviews,

you could always go to our website CBSCOLORADO.com.

We'll be right back.