Aetiologies

• acquisition of genetic changes within a normal cell
  • incidence generally increases with age, however not all mutations will lead to malignancy
• radiation exposure and cytotoxic chemotherapy can cause genetic abnormalities and cancer
• viral infections
  • viral DNA integration into regulatory T cells can cause malignant transformation - human T-cell leaukemia
  • EBV - hodgkins lymphoma
  • HIV - non-hodgkins
• Immunosuppression - increases risk of lymphoma
• Congenital conditions
  • Down’s syndrome - AML and ALL
  • bone marrow failure syndromes - Fanconi anaemia

Pathogenesis

• haematological cancers can broadly be divided into myeloid and lymphoid lineages (may not accurately represent the cell of origin)

History taking

Investigations

Labs:

• FBC
• Blood films
• Bone marrow aspirations
• Bone marrow biopsy for histology