Patients with a flu-like illness should call their physician, but stay away from health care clinics and emergency departments if possible. By Desiree Battaglia, Media Relations Specialist, desiree.battaglia@nm.org, cell 630.780.8187. 1. When your … I tell my patients, if you have a concern, call our office. After treatment ends, your blood cell counts usually go back to normal over time. What other recommendations do you have for people who are currently receiving chemotherapy or who recently received it? These patients are assessed over the phone and given further instructions. A breast cancer survivor, she also writes the breast cancer blog doublewhammied.com. You just need to be more cautious and make sure you get your preventive care.”. “Generally, the risk we see is in our bone marrow transplant patients. If the situation turns out to be no big deal, that does not mean it was wrong to call. What can a person do to support their body’s healing after chemotherapy? “I don’t want people to socially isolate themselves. But this may not be enough to get rid of a cancer altogether. Two top cancer organizations join forces to issue 'invaluable resource' for patients, care providers, Patients and their care providers share the workarounds they’ve devised to handle the worst of chemo, radiation and surgery, We ask an infection prevention expert to bust myths and offer tips on staying healthy during cold and flu season, © 2021 Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, understanding your diagnosis common treatment side effects, New follow-up care guidelines released for breast cancer survivors, From lemon juice to plastic forks: Quick tricks to deal with cancer treatment side effects, Medical myth busting: Separating fact from fiction about colds and flu. Radiation therapy. The small, observational study, conducted at the U.K.’s University of Leeds and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, also demonstrated that smoking exacerbates this effect. You Always Have a Cold. If you are feeling unwell, get to your doctor and get it checked out right away. Surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy and cancer drugs may take a toll on the body that result in serious side effects.These treatments and side effects may also compromise or exhaust the immune system … Dr. Steve Pergam, an infectious disease researcher at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and director of infection control at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, said the study results were “not totally surprising.”, “I think many of us who look at infections do see that there are late infections that occur in patients and we don’t always understand why they occur,” he said. In smokers, B cell recovery “was substantially and significantly impaired,” the researchers wrote, reaching only 51 percent of pre-chemo levels after 9 months. We are committed to cultivating a workplace in which diverse perspectives and experiences are welcomed and respected. ... and compromised immune systems. Some treatments aim to use the immune system to fight cancer. For patients who need encouragement or assistance, physical therapy can be very helpful, especially after treatment is over. “Immune-boosting” foods and supplements are promoted all over the Internet, however unfortunately there is very little evidence that these do any good. Different chemotherapy drugs have different short term and long term side effects and certainly not all chemotherapy drugs cause every side effect. Being immunocompromised can be temporary or permanent. In the meantime, Pergam said patients (and their loved ones) may want to be mindful that post-chemo, the body’s immune system is still repairing itself. It is low white blood count that impacts the immune system. It isn’t bad to get less sometimes, but if you … After nine months, B cells (important for creating antibodies) and CD4 T cells (also known as helper T cells) had only “partial recovery,” reaching only 69 percent and 60 percent of pre-chemo levels respectively, potentially leaving patients vulnerable. Some drugs affect the bone marrow and immune system more than others. These include: Antibody therapy, which uses man-made antibodies to mark out lymphoma cells and tell your immune system to kill them.For example, rituximab is an antibody used to treat many types of lymphoma. ", Researchers looked at the immune systems of 88 breast cancer patients, measuring their levels of lymphocytes – white blood cells that work together to fight viral and bacterial infections – before and up to nine months after receiving chemotherapy. Don’t ignore minor symptoms. “Most of the effect has recovered within nine months, if you don’t smoke,” she said. A month or two after chemo ends, however, most people assume their immune system has returned to normal. It reduces your body's defences against infection during and after treatment. Being immunocompromised means having a weakened immune system, which reduces the body’s ability to fight infections and other diseases. It varies depending on the person and the type of chemotherapy, but for a typical patient who receives immunosuppressive chemotherapy, we see the immune system become more and more impaired over the next four to seven days. Patient should talk to their physician about the degree and duration of immunocompromise. 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