Aggressive pneumonia antibiotics trigger progression ?

[Todd52]

Does anyone have any knowledge or experience on how several rounds of various anti-biotics given intravenously can trigger a progression of CLL?

[Newdawn Administrator]

It may be available but I can't find research linking heavy duty antibiotics with accelerated CLL progression. I suspect the greater concern is the pneumonia leaving lung damage which may increase the propensity towards further episodes of pneumonia.

I had very severe pneumonia and sepsis last year and was in hospital on very heavy intravenous antibiotics for sometime. It had no impact on my CLL in terms of accelerated blood levels such as ALC etc. even though I continued on the antibiotics orally for 6 weeks following discharge from hospital. Naturally the WBC is temporarily elevated massively for the duration of the infection.

Is this something that you've experienced personally Todd or just a concern you have?

Regards,

Newdawn

[Todd52]

Yes, I have add CLL for over 10 years with very little progression.

I had a very recent bout with pneumonia last month and now I am showing more signs of cll progression or richters to hodgkins. Ugh.

I was given very varied and aggressive antibiotic IV treatments.

[Newdawn Administrator in reply to Todd52]

I'm sorry to hear that Todd and wish you the very best. Is there suggestion from your doctors that the antibiotic therapy/pneumonia is implicated?

Newdawn

[Todd52]

Nothing from them but it's almost too coincidental....literally within a couple of weeks. It was so close afterwards that they suspected was a side effect but by now it isn't.

[Newdawn Administrator in reply to Todd52]

I hope you're receiving the very best medical advice Todd because this must be a deeply worrying time for you.

Please keep us updated and others with experience of this will I'm sure, support and advise.

Best wishes,

Newdawn

[Cllcanada Top Poster CURE Hero]

I have no idea if this applies.. but it may... is it the pneumonia that further supressed your immune system, or the antibiotics? That would be the question to ask your doctors...

Some antibiotics are actually topoisomerase inhibitors..a form of chemo... notably the fluroquinilones.

EGCG in green tea also falls into the Type 1 and Type 2 categories.

Bacterial type II topoisomerase inhibitors (gyrase and topo IV): fluoroquinolones. These are antibacterials and include such fluoroquinolones as ciprofloxacin.

Some of these poisons encourage the forward cleavage reaction (fluoroquinolones), while other poisons prevent the re-ligation of DNA (etoposide and teniposide).

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top...

~chris

[Todd52]

That's interesting, I'm not a doctor but one of the antibiotics that I took was named Moxiflaxin which sounds like one of the ones your name

[Newdawn Administrator in reply to Todd52]

Yes Moxiflaxin is a fluoroquinolone;

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/185...

Newdawn

[Cllcanada Top Poster CURE Hero in reply to Todd52]

I was on IV antibiotics for two weeks due to blood posioning... but I don't recall what it was, however it jacked my absolute lymphocyte count [ALC] from the mid 60K range well into the 90K.

A month after the absolute lymphocyte count [ALC] was 62K.

So, while it is disconcerting it is likely temporary...

~chris

[Todd52]

I don't know what that means in relation to my symptoms now. I wonder if it means they could improve

[Newdawn Administrator in reply to Todd52]

Todd, when you say that you're showing signs of progression, what are the signs? Is this largely in relation to a massively elevated lymphocyte count only which could improve. Are the doctors scheduling further diagnostic tests for you?

Newdawn

[Todd52]

I am experiencing low-grade fever, pain in my Spleen, itching, and my platelets went from over 200 to 104.

I am working on getting lab work and a CT scan. And yes, Richters stays in my mind.

[Cllcanada Top Poster CURE Hero in reply to Todd52]

Yes... as ex-Richter's patient.. I urge you to please be proactive...

Where is you LDH and B2M?

Platelets get trapped in the spleen, certainly see your doctor very soon, it sounds odd to me.

Not Richter's odd.. but not CLL normal, if there is such a thing... 🙄

~chris

[Todd52]

Ldh was still normal with my last labs. Not sure about b2m. I will look up.

Glad not richters odd. Lol

[Hidden]

Could also be that your system is overly stressed from the bout with pneumonia and will rebound in time. With CLL, symptoms can be exaggerated from anything that invades the body. Colds, bee stings, mosquito bites, pneumonia, etc, etc.

My mother who does not have CLL, but has a problem with her platelets has had them drop as low as 4 and she has been hospitalized 3 times for the problem. Now she gets a weekly injection of Nplate which is a bone marrow stimulant. They have to check her platelets before each injection in order to know what dose to give her. Her numbers go up and down like a roller coaster. Doctor said this is not unusual even for a normal person. They never worry until the platelets start to dip below 40.

My platelets dropped to 74 after chemo, but since learning so much from dealing with my mother's problem I was not concerned at all. Neither was the doctor. My blood still clotted fine. They are back to normal now.