Hello! A Viewer asked, what does anemia mean? Can it cause leukemia?  My father, for the past 3 ½ years, has problems with anemia. His red blood cell count has been up and down.  He has had many tests and some transfusions. Now doctors think he might have leukemia. He received chemotherapy that helped his leukemia, but his blood count is still low.  Why?


Hello! Thank you for your question about anemia. The word anemia means the number or amount of red blood cells in your body is low. This also means that the amount of oxygen that circulates around your body is low. 

Anemia happens in 3 different ways

1.  Your body does not make enough red blood cells
2.  Your body destroys too many cells
3.  You may be bleeding somewhere inside your body

Anemia does not cause leukemia, but leukemia can lead to or cause anemia!

Why?

Leukemia means your body makes too many white blood cells. If there is too much of something, something else gets pushed out.

If the bone marrow makes too many white blood cells, they can take over inside, there wont be enough room for the red blood cells! The huge numbers of white blood cells push out the red blood cells; this causes the red blood cells numbers to go down, or anemia.

Thank you