Leukemia and lymphoma are blood-related cancers that originate in the bone marrow (leukemia) or lymphatic system (lymphoma).

Leukemia
When you are healthy, your bone marrow makes white blood cells which help your body fight infection, red blood cells, which carry oxygen to all parts of your body and platelets, which help your blood clot.

When you have leukemia, the bone marrow starts to make a lot of abnormal white blood cells, called leukemia cells. They don't do the work of normal white blood cells, they grow faster than normal cells, and they don't stop growing when they should.
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Lymphoma
Lymphoma is a type of cancer involving cells of the immune system, called lymphocytes. Just as cancer represents many different diseases, lymphoma represents many different cancers of lymphocytes-about 35 different subtypes, in fact.

Lymphoma is a group of cancers that affect the cells that play a role in the immune system, and primarily represents cells involved in the lymphatic system of the body.
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Types of Leukemia
The types of leukemia are grouped by how quickly the disease develops and gets worse. Leukemia is either chronic (gets worse slowly) or acute (gets worse quickly):

Chronic Leukemia: Early in the disease, the abnormal blood cells can still do their work, and people with chronic leukemia may not have any symptoms. Slowly, chronic leukemia gets worse. It causes symptoms as the number of leukemia cells in the blood rises.

Acute Leukemia: The blood cells are very abnormal. They cannot carry out their normal work. The number of abnormal cells increases rapidly. Acute leukemia worsens quickly.

Types of Lymphoma
There are more than 30 sub-types of lymphoma, consisting of five types of Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) and over 25 types of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Lymphoma is the most common blood cancer and the third most common cancer of childhood.

There are two main types of lymphoma:

Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL): This type of lymphoma is most common in middle aged or elderly people. NHL can occur in lymph nodes and/or other organs that contain lymph tissue. The cancer may be located in one place in your body, but often, it is located in multiple areas throughout the body.This is because cancerous ("malignant") lymphocytes often circulate throughout your body, just like normal lymphocytes. NHL can be either "Bcell lymphoma" or "T-cell lymphoma," depending on which type of lymphocyte becomes cancerous.There are over 40 different types of NHL. Some types of NHL grow very quickly. Other types grow more slowly.

Hodgkin Lymphoma (HL): This type of lymphoma is most common in young adults.The cancerous ("malignant") lymph nodes contain a particular type of malignant lymphocyte, which is known as a Reed-Sternberg cell.

What is Lymphoma of the Skin?
Lymphoma is a cancer of lymphoid tissue, a part of the lymphatic system. Lymphoma of the skin starts in the skin and often stays there without spreading to internal organs. About 5% of all lymphomas start in the skin. Sometimes lymphoma that starts in lymph nodes will spread to the skin. These are not skin lymphomas because they didn't start in the skin.
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Treatment Options
Patients diagnosed with a blood cancer are required to make many decisions about their care. They must decide where the care will take place and choose the physician who will take charge of care. They also may be asked to participate in many decisions about treatment. Treatment approaches for blood cancers may include chemotherapy, radiation therapy, stem cell or marrow transplantation, or immunotherapy. These treatments are often given as standard care or in a clinical trial.
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Additional Resources:

• Aplastic Anemia and Myelodysplastic Syndrome International Foundation
• Leukemia and Lymphoma Society

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