Hematologic Changes in Malignancies

Abstract

Various type of hematological disorder may occur in patients with malignant disease.  The changes in the peripheral blood and bone marrow usually caused directly by malignancy itself but some may be due to another tumor associated conditions.  Examination of the blood may sometimes suggest that the patient has malignancy, while the examination of the bone marrow may provide a definitive diagnosis and saving both time and money being spent on more time-consuming investigations.

Anemia is the most frequent hematological abnormality observed in cancer, while coagulation disorders, polycythemia, various cytopenias and thrombocytosis all occur more rarely and are usually found in association with disseminated disease.

Curative treatment of malignant disease is much more readily accomplished if the diagnosis is made early and screening for cancer is becoming more and more popular as a means to that end.  Hematological screening is of no use unless the significance of abnormal results can b easily assessed.

In this review, we classified the abnormalities according to the type of blood cells and hemostatic component and emphazised on the interpretation of hematology results in the context of cancer diagnosis.

Having known this article we hope it may lead to better understanding another aspect of tumor behavior, gain early diagnosis and less the cost of investigation which are appropriate to cost-benefit of the rural economical situation.