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Sickle Cell Disease And Cancer

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Sickle Cell Disease and Thalassemias Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) and Thalassemias are similar blood disorders with some important differences. Sickle Cell Disease is a disorder where the red blood cells are sickle-shaped, which causes them to stick to vessel walls preventing much needed oxygen from traveling through the body. Thalassemias has normal looking red blood cells, but the body does not make enough healthy cells or hemoglobin. This means there is a lack of oxygen because the body does not produce enough blood or hemoglobin to carry it throughout the body. The two diseases have basic similarities reflected by the concepts regarding diagnosing and treatment plans. They also differ in many ways; for example, Sickle Cell consist of more complications than the Thalassemias disorder. Thalassemia, however, affects more ethnic backgrounds and numbers of the afflicted are spread over a greater geographical area. Sickle Cell and Thalassemia can be diagnosed by a blood test that checks for certain genetic markers. Generally a person will have two hemoglobin genes. If testing determined you are missing one, or both, then you are either a carrier or you have Thalassemia. Sickle Cell testing does not look for missing genes, as in testing for Thalassemia, it is looking for an abnormal hemoglobin gene. If you have one or both of these genes, the result is the same as Thalassemia, you are either a carrier or you have the disease. Being a carrier of either of the
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