Cancer Research UK main site

When chemotherapy is postponed due to low blood count?

Roly
Offline

hi

 

my mum is having cistplatin and gembetacine to treat a bile duct cancer (klatskin) in the hope that it will shrink the cancer on her portal vein so that they can operate. she's meant to be having 4 rounds anbd then a scan to see if surgery is possible. my query is that on 2 of the rounds (2 weeks of treatment , 1 week off) she was unable to have the 2nd week treatment because her white blood cells were too low. we were under the assumption that this is just a pause and you carry on where you left off. however a nurse in the unit said that the missed week of treatment is written off. so in effect her first 3 rounds of treatment she has only had 4 doses instead of the expected 6.

is this normal practice on the NHS to just write off the treatmen doses that she was unable to have and not to tack it on the end to make up for the missed doses? We're worried that with the delays and the dosage reduction because of her blood counts that she's not going to get enough benefit from the chemo with the missed weeks of treatment.

any advice really appreciated.

thanks in advance

  • Hello and thanks for your post

    Chemotherapy can lower the white blood cell count ( WBC). WBC’s are part of our immune system. The type of WBC's that fight infections are called neutrophils. When they are very low a person is more likely to get infections because there are fewer neutrophils to fight off bacteria and viruses. In this situation, doctors will often postpone chemotherapy for a week or two until the neutrophil count has recovered sufficiently to have the next course of chemotherapy.

    Sometimes they may have to consider reducing the dose of chemotherapy if this keeps happening to your mum or they may have to stop it altogether if they are worried about her kidney and liver function. We have some information on our website about how blood cells are affected by chemotherapy treatment and you can read more about this here.

    As I’m not involved in your mum’s clinical care I’m afraid I can’t explain why the nurse said what she did. I imagine her specialist team will want to complete her treatment if she is getting a response from it, is able to tolerate it and she can cope with the side effects. But please discuss this further with them. Hopefully, they will be able to clarify things for you.

    Give us a ring if you would like to talk things through. The number to call is Freephone 0808 800 4040 and the lines are open from 9am till 5pm Monday to Friday.

    Best wishes,

    Celene

Speak to a nurse

Quick links

Follow us

Registered with Fundraising Regulator (logo)
Cancer Research UK is a registered charity in England and Wales (1089464), Scotland (SC041666), the Isle of Man (1103) and Jersey (247). A company limited by guarantee. Registered company in England and Wales (4325234) and the Isle of Man (5713F). Registered address: 2 Redman Place, London, E20 1JQ.