Blood cancers could reach ‘crisis’ level due to aging population
Posted September 24, 2018 12:02 pm.
Last Updated September 24, 2018 12:06 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – If you made a donation to the Terry Fox Run earlier this month, your money could help address a growing concern. The BC Cancer Research Centre says blood cancers, like leukemia, are at a stable rate overall. But it’s a different story for seniors.
“The older individuals — [aged] 60, 70, 75 — they don’t tolerate the current treatments very well,” said Dr. Keith Humphries, director of the Terry Fox Laboratory.
“It actually is… a building crisis, if we don’t find better ways to treat cancer — blood cancers, in particular.”
Blood cancers are the fourth-most common cancer after breast, prostate, and lung.
“The number of cases of blood cancer — particularly acute myeloid leukemia and multiple myeloma — are actually increasing… just because we’re aging — the population, as a whole.”
But Humphries said in the last 10 years, there’s been a revolution in understanding blood cancers.
“We’re kind of at a cusp where we’ve got a lot of genomic information. We now need to translate to what do those genes do, and how do we target the effect of that mutation.”
September is Blood Cancer Awareness Month.
