leukocytes are very low

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OceanDust
OceanDust Member Posts: 18
edited June 2016 in Stage IV/Metastatic Breast Cancer ONLY

Hi everyone, as some of you may know I'm here for my mother. She had taxol last year and her tumor markers went from 2800 down to under 100. She did fine until a few weeks ago. Tumor marker went up to 500 again. She is now on a different chemotherapy she doesn't know the name, she says it's the blue one. Well she had the first one 10 days ago and now her leukocytes are down to 1000. I'm pretty scared because normal is around 4000. Anyone ever had side-effects like this? I appreciate your opinion about it as I'm really scared right now.




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  • OceanDust
    OceanDust Member Posts: 18
    edited June 2016


    I

    just found out her new chemotherapy is called mitoxantrone. The cancer is now also in her liver. I'm just devastated.

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  • Husband11
    Husband11 Member Posts: 2,264
    edited June 2016

    I am sorry about your mother's recurrence.

    It is quite normal for the leukocyte count to drop during chemotherapy. It is an expected side effect as chemo halts the production of fast dividing cells, including those in the bone marrow that produce white blood cells. Ask her oncologist about it. They will likely monitor her blood count and not restart the next cycle of chemo if it remains too low. If it doesn't recover in time, they will either delay the next cycle of chemo or prescribe a drug that stimulates white blood cell production.

    There are quite a few women on this board with liver metastasis. Some doing well for many years. I wish your mother the best and pray that she can do as well as possible with this. I know how devastating this is, as my wife was recently diagnosed with a recurrence in her liver.

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  • ScienceGirl
    ScienceGirl Member Posts: 207
    edited June 2016

    OceanDust,

    If your Mom's ANC is 1000, this is considered moderate neutropenia. Lots of us here are who are on Ibrance are at this level most of the time. Don't be too worried about this, the real danger of infection is when ANC goes to 500 and below (severe neutropenia). You should clarify with her onc. just how dangerous this is and ask if there are any precautions that she needs to take to avoid infection. Best of luck to her

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