Blood cancer is the fifth most common cancer and the UK's third biggest killer. It affects blood cells, and knowing the symptoms is crucial. BBC News presenter Maryam Moshiri, 49, has revealed she is living with polycythaemia vera (PV), an incurable but treatable form of the disease.
What is blood cancer?
According to Blood Cancer UK, blood cancer occurs when something goes wrong with the DNA in blood cells. These cells become abnormal and multiply, failing to work properly. The blood becomes less able to fight infections or help repair the body.
Types include leukaemia, lymphoma, myeloma, myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN), including essential thrombocythaemia (ET), polycythaemia vera (PV) and myelofibrosis.
The 12 most common symptoms
- Unexplained bruising or bleeding
- Unexplained pain or aching in bones or joints that interferes with sleep or daily activities
- Unexplained pain, discomfort or feeling full (bloated) in the stomach area
- Frequent, persistent or severe infections
- Unexplained fever or high temperature
- Unexplained weight loss
- Tiredness that doesn't improve with rest or sleep
- Lumps or swelling anywhere on the body
- Drenching night sweats
- Paleness (pallor)
- Shortness of breath
- An unexplained rash or itchy skin anywhere on the body that doesn't improve with treatment
Blood Cancer UK said: "It's important to know that not everyone will have the same symptoms, and some people may have symptoms that are not listed."
Maryam Moshiri's diagnosis
Moshiri was diagnosed in November 2024 with PV, which cannot be cured but is treatable. She said: "When I was first told to have blood tests, I wasn't worried because I didn't really have any symptoms. I thought: It can't happen to me. Even after I was told I had PV, I didn't really understand what it meant. It was a cruel blow to realise that while I could have treatment, this was a cancer that was incurable."
PV is rare, affecting about 8,000 people in the UK, and usually develops slowly. The body makes too many red blood cells, making the blood thicker than normal. This raises the risk of blood clots, which can cause a stroke, heart attack or deep vein thrombosis (DVT). Symptoms include headaches, blurred vision, fatigue, night sweats and burning pain in the hands and feet.
Moshiri, who has three children, began taking daily aspirin and underwent regular venesections to reduce her red blood cell count. The procedure involves a needle in a vein in the arm to slowly draw blood out, helping reduce blood thickness. She said: "The treatments were working but they left me feeling really weak with horrendous fatigue, like someone had taken your batteries out."
She continued working despite symptoms, adding: "When you do live news you get a rush of adrenaline, but I was doing long days under pressure while dealing with chronic tiredness. Back home I would zonk out on the sofa for hours to recover. It really made me reflect on the fact that there are so many misconceptions about blood cancer and the fact it's a 'silent or hidden' cancer."
"People think you have chemotherapy and then you are cancer-free but for many people like me it is a chronic condition. You have to live with it, the treatments and the side-effects around your everyday life, and that's hard."
