Friday, March 28, 2008

Can white blood cells be given to person with lung cancer during chemo

Can white blood cells be given to person with lung cancer during chemo?
My dad died becuase his white blood cells droped to 0- during first round of chemotherapy sslc cancer. and his body wasnt producing any white blood cells and he got an infection and died very soon. doctors just gave him antiboitics but it didn't help what else could there be done to save him like give him some white blood cells ? b4 he died like few days l8r was throwing up green fluid is that a sign of infection?
Cancer - 4 Answers
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1 :
They should have given him more protein because protein makes WBC's which make anti-bodies which help fight pathogens. They could give have given him WBC's in the form of a blood transfusion. He needed protein, a blood transfusion for the WBC's, and antibiotics (which he got). His doctor should have done more.
2 :
you cannot give someone else's white blood cells....they would attack a different body. Platelets can be given, and red blood cells of the same type can be given... but white cells cannot be transferred, they see a foreign body as something to be attacked and will do so. White cells would have attacked your dad's system and killed him even quicker. That is one of the dangers inherent in chemo therapy... it kills your own immune system as well as the cancer... medicine is by no means anywhere near perfect. Sorry for your loss.
3 :
You can't give transfusions of white blood cells. This is because they seek out and destroy anything foreign to them. Another person's white blood cells would find the person they are being transfused into as foreign and there would be a huge and deadly reaction. However, there are some medicines and doctors use in these situations to help boost the white count back up. I am really sorry for your loss. Unfortunately, a decreased white count is an expected and inevitable side effect of chemo. Many people do die from infections rather than the cancer itself. I've seen this many times and it is very sad and frustrating. Here's what should be done if a cancer patient gets sick. - Within one hour of the onset of the fever the person should be receiving their first dose of antibiotics. The antibiotics they use should be very broad spectrum - such as cefepime. That's the one we use first where I work. Prior to the start of the antibiotics, the person should have blood cultures drawn and a urinalysis. Other tests needed would depend on the symptoms the person has. Then the person needs to be watched very very closely. Infections in people with that low of a white count is inevitable, but with prompt and appropriate treatment, it can be beat. However, sometimes we have done everything exactly right and we lose the person anyway. Just remember that we really have no control in these matters. Our stories were already written long before our first breath was drawn. When it is time to go, it is time to go - no matter how hard we try to prevent it.
4 :
Sometimes doctors prescribe Neupogen or Neulasta, which stimulate the body's bone marrow to produce white blood cells. However, it is not instantaneous ... it takes the body a few days to respond to the injection. Sometimes infections hit very quickly, some pathogens reproduce very fast. So there is no guarantee that even if he had had the medication to stimulate WBC production, that it would have helped in time. I'm sorry about your dad.

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