[Stephanie in FL]

Hi everyone. I am a 36 yr old RN. I was diagnosed with Stage 3a ovarian cancer 9/03. I had a total hysterectomy at that time. I started chemo 10/15/03. I am part of a clinical trial and am receiving Taxol, Carbo, and Doxil. About a week and a half after both chemo treatments I have recieved, my neutrophil count decreased and I was advised to follow neutrapenic precautions. Can any experienced oncology nurses tell me if side effects of decreased WBC and RBC with these drugs are additive over time? That is, will side effects worsen over time? Is it likely that I wil need Epogen or Neupogen in the future? Any other advice for me? Thanks in advance for any replies. I am a certified diabetes educator and not familiar with oncology.

Stephanie

[jemb]

Sorry to hear about your dx, Stephanie.

At a week and a half after your treatment, you are probably at your nadir -- the point where your counts are lowest. The time between treatments should allow your counts to recupe. This drop in the count is not 'cumulative' as long as the next treatment is not given before your CBC and diff is within safe levels to give the drugs. (That's why you have to have all the blood tests before your next treatment.) Treatment regimens are scheduled to accommodate this fluctuation in the levels due to the drugs, but sometimes we do have to postpone the next tx a few days -or a week- until the counts come back up.

Do you know what your AGC is? As long as our patients do not develop neutropenic fevers and their counts come back up in time for the next treatment, they generally will not need neupogen.

We rarely give procrit in conjunction with our chemo regimens.

An excellent website for both nurses and patients is http://cancersource.com/ .

Feel free to pm me if you have questions. I don't have all the answers, but I'll try to help you.