Is Cold Agglutinin Disease Cancer?

There is a link between Cold Agglutinin Disease and cancer. But is Cold Agglutinin Disease cancer itself? Or is it a different type of disease? In this article, we will answer that question.

So the answer to this question in short is no. Cold Agglutinin Disease is not a type of cancer. However, it is not really far off from cancer, especially with certain types.

What is Cold Agglutinin Disease?

Cold Agglutinin Disease (CAD) is a health condition that makes your body’s immune system attack your red blood cells. The immune system destroys the red blood cells.

Cold Agglutinin Disease includes high concentrations of cold-sensitive antibodies that attack the red blood cells. The antibodies clump the red blood cells, and they undergo lysis (which means they rupture and break apart).

Most of the time, the antibodies that attack the red blood cells are Immunoglobulin M or IgM.

Thankfully, just like cancer, this disease is not common, especially for people below the age of 50 years.

The Link Between CAD and Cancer

This is a rare disease. But even so, we must still watch out. And even though Cold Agglutinin Disease is not cancer, it is associated with it.

Cold Agglutinin Disease is usually caused by itself. However, in some cases, Cold Agglutinin Disease is caused by certain illnesses, including cancer.

But how can cancer cause Cold Agglutinin Disease or CAD? Well, unfortunately, we cannot give a straight answer to that.

However, scientists believe that the antibodies made by the immune system to fight cancer proteins are mistakenly attacking proteins usually found on the surface of red blood cells. This causes the red blood cells to get destroyed.

Most cancers that cause CAD are usually those associated with blood such as lymphomas or leukemias. Cancer types that are associated with CAD include:

Waldenström macroglobulinemia
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia
Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance

About Cancer

Cancer. It is undoubtedly one of the most well-known illnesses not only to humankind but also to other creatures. And unfortunately, that is for a bad reason.

Cancer is a very potent illness, and it is challenging to treat. It takes a lot from the person and the doctors to battle one; even for people who are strong enough, battling cancer can still be a 50/50 fight.

Cancer is not just easily treatable with a single medication. Treatment for many types of cancer is a long process, in which every part of the treatment should be successful. That is to get better chances of recovering from it.

There are many types of cancer, and most of them are not easily treatable and detectable until it is too late.

Other types of cancer include lung cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, bone cancer, lymphoma, bladder cancer, and prostate cancer. According to the World Health Organization or also known as WHO, cancers that are common include: