Hemoglobin, platelets not responding after chemo

[MikeHoff]

I was diagnosed with CLL 6 years ago. Last month, after a significant spike in WBC (over 400k), I hospitalized for my first chemo treatments. Received 2 bendumustine treatments and 3 units of RBC. Now a month later, my WBC is in normal range (although I know I will need further chemo treatments) but my platelets, hemoglobin and RBC are not regenerating. I receive platelet infusions 2 or 3 times a week. Had a bone marrow biopsy last Monday; do not have results yet. Anyone have a similar experience?

[AussieNeil Administrator]

Be patient Mike! It takes more than a couple of treatments to clear the CLL out of the bone marrow so that it can produce adequate amounts of blood cells. Also don't forget that treatment also suppress the bone marrow's production capability.

Hopefully you'll get some feedback from BR (and FCR patients, who would see similar responses) regarding how many treatments they went through before they saw an improvement in their counts to higher than their pre-treatment counts.

Neil

[scarletnoir]

Only two bendamustine treatments? I had four - which worked for me. Others have reported having 6.

What is RBC? I had rituximab before each bendamustine infusion (BR) which is, I think, pretty common nowadays - is RBC 'rituximab' or something else?

With any luck, the bloods and bone marrow will show an improvement as time goes on... the tricky thing is that we're all different, and so respond differently to the 'same' treatment.

All the best for a good result and remission.