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Blood Cancer Awareness: What a Simple Poll Revealed About the Knowledge Gap
Awareness campaigns are designed to make important information easier to recognize and remember. But how much of that information actually sticks?
For Blood Cancer Awareness Month in September 2026, ProcDNA ran a simple LinkedIn poll asking our community to identify which of four options was
not
a commonly associated symptom of blood cancer:- Persistent fatigue
- Unexplained bruising or bleeding
- Sudden weight gain
- Frequent infections
Twenty-seven people participated. Only
48% selected the correct answer: sudden weight gain.
The remaining 52% selected symptoms that can be associated with blood cancers.On its own, a LinkedIn poll of 27 respondents is not a scientific study, and we do not treat it as one. But the result raises an interesting question:
If even a relatively informed life sciences audience finds it difficult to distinguish between symptoms and non-symptoms, how much harder might it be for the broader population to recognize the signals that warrant medical attention?
Awareness Alone doesn't Guarantee Recognition
Blood cancers, including leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma, can present with symptoms that are broad and easily attributed to more common conditions.
Fatigue, recurrent infections, unexplained bruising or bleeding, fever, night sweats, and unexplained weight loss can all occur in different blood cancers. The American Cancer Society notes that these symptoms can also be caused by conditions other than leukemia, making recognition and appropriate medical evaluation particularly important.[1,2]
That makes awareness more complicated than a yes-or-no question about whether someone has “heard of” blood cancer symptoms.
The real question is whether people can recognize the right signals when they encounter them.
What our Poll Tells us, and what it doesn't
Our poll should be viewed as a directional observation, not a population-level finding.
The audience was self-selected and the sample was small. Participants were drawn from ProcDNA's LinkedIn community, which includes people working in and around the life sciences industry, so we cannot use the result to estimate blood cancer awareness more broadly. But the result becomes more interesting when viewed alongside established research.
A 2023 study published in BMC Cancer surveyed 434 adults in the UK using a validated Blood Cancer Awareness Measure.[3] Recognition ranged from 68.9% for unexplained weight loss down to 31.3% for night sweats, with bleeding (64.9%), fatigue (60.6%), and bruising (60.1%) in between.
The same study also found that:
- 7% of participants could not identify a single blood cancer symptom
- Participants recognized an average of about seven of fourteen symptoms
- Awareness was particularly variable for symptoms that may be less obviously associated with blood cancer
- Barriers to seeking medical attention included both emotional and practical factors
That distinction matters, because awareness is not binary: people can know about blood cancer in general and still misjudge individual symptoms, as the 68.9%-to-31.3% recognition range above shows.
From Awareness to Recognition
This distinction matters for anyone designing health education or awareness campaigns. A campaign can generate impressions, clicks, video views, downloads, and shares. These measures tell us whether content reached an audience. They do not necessarily tell us whether the audience learned something.
Our poll offered a simple way to test that difference. Instead of asking people to consume another piece of awareness content, we asked them to make a choice, and that small change turns passive exposure into an opportunity to test recognition.
That may be a more useful lens for life sciences organizations thinking about patient and disease education.
What this Means for Life Sciences Teams
For teams developing disease-awareness campaigns, patient education, HCP resources, or digital content, the lesson is not that every campaign needs a quiz. It is that
reach and recall should be treated as different measures of impact.
A few principles can help teams make that shift:
- Move beyond exposure:Views and impressions measure whether content reached someone. Recognition questions and short knowledge checks help assess whether the message was understood or remembered.
- Design for the information people are most likely to miss:Not every symptom has the same level of awareness. The BMC Cancer research showed a gap of more than 37 percentage points between the most recognized symptom, weight loss at 68.9%, and the least recognized, night sweats at 31.3%. That suggests campaigns should identify where the gaps actually are, rather than repeating the facts audiences already know.
- Reinforce knowledge over time:One awareness post during an awareness month is unlikely to create lasting recall. Organizations can instead use awareness months as a starting point and reinforce key messages through subsequent educational content, digital experiences, and field resources.
- Test what people can do with the information:The strongest awareness content answers two questions: “What should people know?” and “Can they recognize it when it matters?” That shift, from delivering information to testing recognition, gives future content a clearer signal of what actually worked.
The Bigger Takeaway
Awareness months create an important moment to start a conversation. But they should not be treated as the finish line.
Our Blood Cancer Awareness Month poll was small and informal, and it was never intended to represent the broader population. What it did provide was something valuable: a simple signal that even a relatively informed audience can have gaps in symptom recognition.
That leads to a broader point for life sciences organizations:
If the goal of awareness is to change what people recognize, remember, or do, then measuring reach alone is not enough.
Health education may need to track whether people can recognize a message when it matters, alongside how many people saw it in the first place.
At ProcDNA, we believe better health communication starts with understanding how effectively information translates into recognition and action, in addition to what gets delivered.
References
- Signs and Symptoms of Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL) [Internet]. www.cancer.org. 2024 [cited 2026 Sept 15]. Available from: https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/acute-lymphocytic-leukemia/detection-diagnosis-staging/signs-symptoms.html.
- American Cancer Society. Signs and Symptoms of Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) [Internet]. www.cancer.org. 2024 [cited 2026 Sept 15]. Available from: https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/acute-myeloid-leukemia/detection-diagnosis-staging/signs-symptoms.html
- Boswell L, Harris J, Ip A, Russell J, Black GB, Whitaker KL. Assessing awareness of blood cancer symptoms and barriers to symptomatic presentation: measure development and results from a population survey in the UK. BMC Cancer. 2023 July 6;23(1).
FAQs
What are some common symptoms associated with blood cancers?
Depending on the type of blood cancer, possible symptoms can include persistent fatigue, unexplained bruising or bleeding, recurrent infections, fever, night sweats, unexplained weight loss, swollen lymph nodes, or other changes. Symptoms vary by cancer type and can also occur with many non-cancerous conditions.[1,2]
Does having these symptoms mean someone has blood cancer?
No. These symptoms are not specific to blood cancer and may have many other causes. Persistent, unexplained, worsening, or unusual symptoms should be discussed with a healthcare professional rather than interpreted as a diagnosis.
Why did ProcDNA run the poll?
September is Blood Cancer Awareness Month, providing an opportunity to start a conversation around symptom awareness. Rather than simply sharing another awareness message, ProcDNA used a short poll to see how well key information was recognized by our own community.
Can a LinkedIn poll measure blood cancer awareness?
Not scientifically at a population level. Our poll had only 27 respondents and used a self-selected LinkedIn audience, so we treat it as an informal snapshot rather than a representative measure of awareness.
Why is symptom recognition important?
Blood cancer symptoms can be broad and may resemble those of other conditions. Research has shown that awareness ranges widely by symptom, from roughly 31% to 69% in one UK study, which highlights the importance of clear, repeated, and targeted health education.[3]
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