Haematological Cancer Service
The Haematological Cancer Service at the University Hospital of Wales is the largest in Wales and one of the busiest in the UK.
All eight different malignancies which together comprise 15% of all patients with cancer, are treated at the site in outpatient, day care and high dependency inpatient care facilities.
These eight malignancies are:
- Acute Lymphoid Leukaemia
- Acute Myeloid Leukaemia
- Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia
- Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
- Hodgkin’s Disease
- Chronic Lymphoid Leukaemia
- Myeloma
- Myelodysplastic Syndrome
The service is supported by highly sophisticated diagnostics within the Directorate of Laboratory Medicine, and the extensive Research and Development activity of the Academic Department of Haematology in the Wales School of Medicine.
The overall rate of new cases of haematological (blood) cancer is approximately 40 per 100,000, with the median age of patients being around 65 years. This would suggest local demand to be around 120 new cases per year and a network demand of 480 new haematological cancer cases per year.
Of importance to planning future services is the unequivocal evidence that there is, and will continue to be, an increased incidence of haematological cancer unrelated to age eg., Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma and Myeloma, in addition to a significant increase in cases arising from an increasing population in their older decades.