Blood Cancer for Dummies

CajunJeff has CLL, a form of Blood Cancer. This series of posts first appeared in the Health Unlocked CLL Support forum as CLL for Dummies (registration required to view). The only edits made were to change CLL to blood cancer where relevant. Used with permission Copyright CajunJeff 2020.

31Jul2020

Clonal evolution for dummies

In this Blood Cancer for Dummies article the focus is on clonal evolution which is the process by which cancer cells can acquire resistance to treatme…

Blood Cancer for Dummies

26Jun2020

Monoclonal antibodies for dummies

We recently did an antibodies for dummies post. You might well ask why "monoclonal" antibodies gets its own dummy feature write up. That would be like…

Antibodies (immunoglobulins) for dummies

Blood Cancer for Dummies

23Jun2020

Antibodies (immunoglobulins) for dummies

Wait, what do antibodies have to do with blood cancer? A lot as it turns out. Many blood cancers are of a type of lymphocyte called a b-cell. The prim…

Ibrutinib and BTK inhibitors for dummies

Blood Cancer for Dummies

19Jun2020

Ibrutinib and BTK inhibitors for dummies

Ibrutinib is a relatively new and revolutionary drug that has changed the landscape for treating CLL . For many people, it might be the only leukemia …

Blood Cancer for Dummies

14Jun2020

Mutated and unmutated CLL for dummies

When told I had chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) four years ago, all I heard was "leukemia". Google soon became my best friend and worst enemy. I ju…

FISH testing and chromosomes for dummies

Blood Cancer for Dummies

12Jun2020

FISH testing and chromosomes for dummies

I am betting most of us had a blood cancer tabula rasa at diagnosis, that is, our knowledge of blood cancer was a blank slate. When told I had CLL, al…

Blood Cancer for Dummies

9Jun2020

Cell biology and blood cancer for dummies

In the interest of full disclosure, I have no science background. To the contrary, science was my worst subject in high school. So when I was diagnose…

Blood Cancer for Dummies

9Jun2020

Covid for dummies – part deux

Virus for dummies part 1 was introductory in nature and talked a lot about viruses in general, less about covid-19 (covid) specifically . For those wh…

Blood Cancer for Dummies

8Jun2020

Viruses for dummies – corona edition

"Know yourself, know your enemy and you shall win a hundred battles without loss" was one of the tenets of Sun Tzu's Chinese military treatise, "The A…

Blood Cancer for Dummies

7Jun2020

Introducing Blood Cancer for Dummies

I was invited to share my dummy posts here on Blood Cancer Uncensored so here goes. I am happy that some folks find the dummy posts helpful. I did not…