Low WBC
Dear worriers, I hope you all are doing well. I need your collective wisdom. My wife finished chemotherapy 2 months ago and radiotherapy 3 weeks ago, but her WBC count doesn’t seem to be recovering that fast. I was wondering, how long after your last chemo, did your levels achieve baseline again? Thank you all for the answers!
This is my second post for an answer! I hope I get some clarity.
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some chemo patients have lifelong mild suppression of their wbc counts. Probably not a huge worry beyond recommendations for hygiene measures and up to date vaccinations.
Hope this helps!
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I’m 13 months out from completion of chemo (for ovarian cancer) and my WBC still has not recovered to normal levels. While my oncologist is following my WBC levels she is not overly concerned, I would check with your wife’s doctor to see if they are concerned.
Best of luck.
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Hello @lirjakupi Thank you for joining the community boards and sharing your wife's experience. There are various factors that can influence low WBC after treatment. Some of the key factors may include:
- The type of chemotherapy
- The duration and intensity of chemo
- The timing and location of the radiotherapy
- Whether other cell types (neutrophils vs lymphocytes vs total WBC) are being considered
- Other health factors: nutrition, infections, other medications, smoking, etc.
Depending on several factors, it could take several months to get back to a baseline number. Be sure to talk to your doctor about this and take special precautions to reduce infections. Here are a few articles that may be helpful to you and your wife.
Hope this helps. Keeping you in our thoughts.
The Community Navigators.
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I went from chemo to surgery to radiation and now I’m 1.5 years through my 2 year course of Verzenio. My WBC rebounded some after chemo, then a little more after radiation/ but never reached normal. It’s gone down even more on Verzenio-but my oncologist isn’t concerned. She’s says once I’m done with the Verzenio it will rebound quickly & get back to the normal range. I have no idea what the definition of quickly is.
It hasn’t been that long since your wife finished. It may just need more time to see improvement.
hopefully someone else will have more insight.
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it took mine 1.5 years after Verzenio, chemo radiation and surgery to make it to the low end of normal. Eat nutritiously and healthily - lots of veggie smoothies and proteins with moderate carbs, do less stressful and happy inducing activities and up the exercise slowly and steadily. In my case, I felt energy and strength returning and the blood count tests just confirmed the trend ….
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It took mine about a year to creep back up into the 'normal' range. It has stayed in the low end of 'normal' ever since.
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Mine is still not in the normal range almost 5 years after chemo. I've read that low WBCs is also a side effect of Letrozole, so I'm not confident they will increase until I'm off of it. That said, it doesn't seem to effect me at all (I'm 53 and very healthy)
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Maitake mushroom extract can help with WBC count, also other natural supplements. Maitake seemed to help my mother (LC) while on paclitaxel and Nerlynx, to get the counts really high. Should be safe even with therapies.
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I’m 3 years out from treatment and mine have stabilized but are at the low end of normal. I’m also on Letrozole so that can also effect WBC .
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