Blood cancer is a term that's used to describe many different types of cancer that can affect your blood, bone marrow or lymphatic system. It happens when something goes wrong with the development of your blood cells.

Blood cancer is a type of cancer that affects your blood cells. Leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma are some of the most common types of blood cancer. There are also types called MPNs and MDS.

Blood cancer is caused by changes (mutations) in the DNA within blood cells. This causes the blood cells to start behaving abnormally. In almost all cases, these changes are linked to things we can’t control. They happen during a person’s lifetime, so they are not genetic faults you can pass on.

Some types of blood cancer affect children. Symptoms and treatment can be different between children and adults.

Around 40,000 people are diagnosed with a blood cancer each year in the UK, and about 280,000 people are currently living with blood cancer.