Chemotherapy And The Blood Cells

If you are having chemotherapy, you will know that it affects your blood counts. Chemotherapy often kills cells that are actively multiplying.

The developing blood cells are multiplying all the time as they mature. So they are also killed by the chemotherapy drugs. The white cell counts are affected first because many white cells in the circulation naturally die off within a few days at most. Normally these are replaced by newly developed white cells. But the developing white cells have been killed by chemotherapy. So there will be a short wait before more can be made. About a week or two in fact. Just in time for your next course of chemotherapy!

The mature red blood cells live for about three months. So you often don't get anaemic or low in red cells until further into your chemotherapy course (if at all). Your doctor may want you to have a transfusion of red cells or a drug called erythropoietin until you are producing red cells normally again.

Chemotherapy can also make you become very short of platelets. If you do, you may get nose bleeds, or notice a red rash on your skin like tiny bruises. Your doctor may then want you to have a platelet transfusion. After high dose chemotherapy it can take longer for the platelet count to get back to normal than any other blood cell count.