chemo question

[kaz39]

hi doc, my mum has ovca stage 3, had carb/taxol in jan, for 2 rounds then just carbo as she was losing too much weight with both, then had full hyst, omentum removed, the full works, then after surgery needs  about 3 lots (she has had 2) with one more to go (hooray), her bloods have been low throughout and has 2 or 3 blood transfusions, her doc said her bloods are bit low at moment but not doing anything so cant be that low. she had chemo week ago, and is feeling very tired and fatigued. sorry to ramble on, do you think this is all to do with the chemo (carbo), as they have said since surgery she only has 3 nodules of cancer left in her abdomen, so i wouldnt have thought it was still to do with the disease itself as she has hardly anything there at present. many thanks in advance.

[Annekathryn Goodman, M.D.]

Dear Kaz,
It sure does sound like the chemotherapy is causing your Mum's blood counts to be low. It would be very unusual for that to be from cancer. The chemotherapy kills actively growing cells (the bad cancer cells) but some of the side effects are because normal actively growing cells are reduced (hair cells, intestinal cells, and bone marrow cells which produce the blood cells.) That is great that your Mum has only one more cycle of chemo to go. After that her blood counts will recover.
Best wishes