no chemo low wbc

oneagleswings

Hi-
My husband was unable to have his 4th treatment of folfiri and avastin because his neutrophil (wbc) count was too low. So now he has to wait a week for it to hopefully go up and then when it does they will reduce the dosage of his chemo as per his clinical trial protocol...His blood counts had stayed fine before when he was on the adjuvant 5FU-

Has this happened to anyone else- did your counts come up and did the reduction in dosage affect the response?

Is there anything he can do this week to bring up his counts naturally? (they can't give him neulasta etc since it is against the trial protocol to artificially increase blood counts (he is taking these as a trial because here in Canada avastin is not yet available )

Thanks for your response.

Bev

wendy_21

Hi!
i went in Dec, 27 to have my 3rd round of chemo with Folfox + Avastin and they sent me home because my WBC count was too low (.6). I am also in a clinical trial with Avastin for Stage III colon cancer patients. The protocol won't let me do the shots to raise the count for one additional week -- but then the doctor said this study allows it. (You might want to check and see if there is just a waiting period or if the shots are totally out of the question.)
I was pretty disappointed because I am still trying to work and had meetings and events scheduled for everyday in January that I anticipated feeling ok. Now everything has to be changed since chemo will be on the other weeks!
My nurse told me there wasn't anything I could do to improve the count other than "wait on my body to make those cells" so I'd be interested in knowing if anyone else is aware of any nutritional support for low WBC.

taraHK

Hi Bev,
I was on FOLFOX (not FOLFIRI) but I had many problems with low WBC count - neutrophil count. I did eventually use Neupogen (Neulasta) but I understand that he cannot. I did have my dosage adjusted (to 80% of what they started me on). I don't believe that affected the efficacy of the treatment, as it was still in line with what is being practiced at many treatment centres (I was started on a pretty high dose...). Also, my doctor told me that a delay of up to 2 weeks in any given cycle is considered fine, in terms of efficacy. That brought me great comfort. My blood counts usually bounced back up within one week -- although it took 2 weeks one time. My docs didn't have much advice for me in terms of boosting the white blood count. They asked me to eat a lot of protein and in particular red meat. Not sure there is much scientific evidence for this, but I tried to comply. And rest a lot. I guess you know that with low WBC, he is at higher risk for infection. Get scrupulous about hygience (I had to bully my kids on this! ). I was asked to avoid eating raw vegetables and fruits (that couldn't be peeled) and raw meat and fish (no sushi!). And to avoid crowds.
Good luck and best wishes to you both.
Tara

Jen28

I'm sorry that your husband has to wait before having his next treatment. That happened to me two weeks ago. I'm pretty new at this (just finally started my second treatment of Folfox today), so I'm still learning about this too. I didn't do any shots, and my counts came up on their own. I had a full two weeks for them to come back up (because waiting just one week would have meant I'd be doing chemo during the Christmas weekend and I didn't want to do that), but I don't think it would normally take that long. My oncologist and nurse didn't say to do anything different to bring the counts up, but I read that getting extra rest and extra protein can help bring the counts up. If nothing else, I doubt it would hurt.

My oncologist reduced my dose this time (because of a lot of fatigue the first round and because of my low wbc counts) and is going to see if that helps my wbc counts before trying neulasta. I'll find out in two weeks if the reduced dose fixes the problem for me, and I'll let you know.

Good luck with the counts. I was originally frustrated about the delay (and of course I want to be able to keep to a schedule and am working toward getting there), but I decided since the delay was beyond my control, I would do my best to enjoy the fact that the delay gave me some extra time to feel good. I hope your husband feels good enough to be able to enjoy a little break from the chemo.

Jen

spongebob

No sage advice to give you, just sending you and your husband prayers and lots of positive energy.

Happy new year

- SB