Hematology

Hematology deals with all aspects of blood formation and the diseases that occur when this process breaks down.

Blood is made up of cells, proteins and fluids that are manufactured in the lymphoid organs and bone marrow.

With a range of leading haematology services, including bone marrow and stem cell transplantation, the hospital is well equipped to deal with any blood-related problems.

Hematological malignancies:

Hematological malignancies are a complex group of cancers derived from bone marrow cells that arise as a result of a disruption in the normal cellular processes in the bone marrow and immune system and are distinct and show many differences from solid tumours.

Hematological malignancies include myeloma, lymphoma and leukaemia, and account for more than 10% of cancer cases.

Diagnosis and Management:

Accurate diagnosis and management are essential to the major improvements in survival and quality of life that have occurred over the past 10 to 15 years.

Diagnosis and management of patients has been transformed by new technologies replacing traditional diagnostic methods and accelerating the introduction of new treatments that increasingly define not only the diseases themselves, but also how the patient should be treated best on the basis of sound and comprehensive diagnostic information.

Patients often present with non-specific symptoms such as fatigue, lethargy, recurrent infections and bleeding due to anaemia, low white blood cell counts and low platelets.

A detailed clinical examination, pathological investigations and radiological imaging when appropriate allow for an accurate diagnosis and an individualised, targeted approach to the treatment of the patient that maximises the effect on the disease while minimising the risk of side effects for the patient.

Diagnosis It is extremely important to make an accurate diagnosis early and to try to identify factors that may predict how well patients will respond to treatment.

Increasingly, proper screening of patients at the time of diagnosis allows doctors to select the treatments that are most likely to produce the best outcomes for patients. In addition to blood tests and bone marrow tests, specialised radiological investigations accurately determine the extent of the disease and are used to identify minimal disease at follow-up which may predict outcomes.