Guest guest Posted January 21, 2004 Report Share Posted January 21, 2004 Narice- I guess I would not get too excited by those platelet counts. Mild drops in platelet counts are common with oxaliplatin. My oncologist says that since platelet counts don't come back up as quickly as WBCs, that they can gradually decline. My oncologist told me that it can require a short break if they get too low. He said he hesitates to treat if they are below below 75,000. Mine got down to about 89,000 once (they still treated me) and the count was back up to 135,000 2 wks later. It is not uncommon for the results to vary 20,000 or so just from variation in the machine counting. There is a drug, Neulasta which can raise platelet counts, that someone here mentioned once, and I also mentioned recently after I checked into it. It has more side effects than Procrit or Neupagin, so they only recommend it to avoid a platelet transfusion if the platelet count gets to the danger point where bleeding could occur. The impression I get from the docs is that people feel really ill with most of the other things that cause platelet counts to drop dramatically. Kris > The way they measure platelets at our cancer center seems to be by using > units 1-200 > for example rather than 1,000-200,000 Currently Phil is at 145 not bad but > the last 3 weeks he's been: > 1/7 200 > 1/14 120 > 1/21 145 > > The onc. said this is due to the chemo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 21, 2004 Report Share Posted January 21, 2004 Thanks Kaye this was the reassurance I needed. Narice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 21, 2004 Report Share Posted January 21, 2004 oops Kris I'm still waking up! LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 22, 2004 Report Share Posted January 22, 2004 Narice-Oops - I just read the comments from Nickie and realized I had made a mistake. Neulasta, like Neupogen works predominately to increase WBCs. It is fairly commonly used. Like Nickie said, one of the common side effects is bone pain. It does not result in a dramatic change in platelet counts, but that is OK if they are not critically low. When my oncologist commented that there was a drug that could elevate platelet counts, and that he had only used a couple of times, I got curious. It is Neumega (oprelvekin) an interleukin 11 like drug that has been used to try to reduce the need for platelet transfusions when platelet counts get critically low. According to Wyeth's website though, it can cause marked edema, fever and much more scary side effects. So this is a drug they would not consider using except when there is real trouble. Sorry I got names mixed up-I didn't mean to scare anyone. Neupogen and Neulasta have been a big help to allow a number of people continue chemotherapy without a break. Kris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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