"Salud" is a Latin Post feature series that focuses on health and wellness topics and examines Latino health trends.   

National Blood Cancer Awareness Month has been assigned to the month of September, and during that 30-day stint, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) raises awareness about blood cancer and shares the impact of contributions in an effort to save lives, fund research, and help families.  

Every three minutes, one person in the U.S. is diagnosed with a blood cancer, and new cases of lymphoma, leukemia and myeloma accounted for 9.4 percent of the estimated 1,665,540 new cancer cases diagnosed in the U.S. in 2014. Approximately every 10 minutes someone dies from a blood cancer, statistically representing nearly 152 deaths each day or more than six people every hour.

Leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, myelodysplastic syndromes and myeloproliferative neoplasms are blood cancers affecting thousands of Americans. Blood cancers affect cells in the blood, spleen, bone marrow, lymph nodes and other parts of the lymphatic system. While many blood cancers don't impact the U.S. Hispanic community quite as severely as prostate or breast cancer --which has the highest number of estimated new cancer cases -- more than 10 percent of new cancer cases are blood cancers. Also, Non-Hodgkins lymphoma is the fifth most common cancer in Hispanics.

According to Cancer.org, lymphoma incidence rates among children (ages 0 to 14 years) are the same for Hispanics and non-Hispanic whites, while among adolescents (ages 15 to 19 years), incidence rates in Hispanics are 35 percent lower for Hodgkin lymphoma and 20 percent lower for non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

In children, adolescents and young adults less than 20 years old, leukemia rates are highest among Hispanics. It is the most common cancer in Hispanic children and adolescents; and the survival rate is slightly lower for Hispanics than non-Hispanic whites.

Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), which is the world's leading voluntary nonprofit dedicated to blood cancers, was founded to find cures and guarantee access to lifesaving therapies to rid the world of blood cancers. Today, there are new effective therapies that save the lives of blood cancer patients. Since 1954, LLS has invested more than $1 billion in blood cancer research and the development of immunotherapy drugs and lifesaving therapies, which selectively kill cancer cells. These same therapies are also helping patients with different types of cancers and other serious diseases.

"Nearly 40 percent of cancer drugs approved since 2000 were for blood cancers," the LLS site stated. "But many of those are also helping or being tested to treat patients with other cancers or chronic diseases. For example, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell immunotherapy, first pioneered for blood cancers with substantial LLS funding, is now being tested for other types of cancers, including pancreatic. In addition, an oral therapy called 'idelalisib,' approved for relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients, is now being tested for a type of pancreatic cancer."

Last year, LLS invested nearly $79.8 million in cutting-edge research. The organization is funding nearly 300 research programs around the world. Also, last year, Information Resource Center (IRC) performed more than 6,000 clinical trial searches using the IRC's trail check tool. Furthermore, LLS is the leading source of free blood cancer information and support for patients, families, caregivers and healthcare professionals.

LLS aims to raise $400,000 this month to increase blood cancer awareness. As of Thursday afternoon, they're nearly halfway toward their goal.