Neutrophil Level Meaning

[Storygirl]

I am new here for asking a question but have been reading many of your posts for a couple of months. I was diagnosed with cll in May 2017. After a mammogram the radiologist thought my lymph nodes that were visible were irregularly shaped and an ultrasound was scheduled soon followed by a biopsy. A blood test lead to a bone marrow biopsy. At this point I know I have cll with 17p deletion and have been taking ibrutinib for about 4 months now. I am still trying to understand all of the abnormalities in my blood test results . Today neutrophil levels are a big puzzle to me. My level has ranged between 6 neutrophils/100 leukocytes up to the latest at 14 neutrophils/100 leukocytes. The normal range is 45 -- 74 neutrophils/100 leukocytes. Are my levels dangerous or just a little low or something else? I can't correlate my result with what I have read. Anybody, please?

[AussieNeil Partner Administrator]

Hi Storygirl and welcome to our community,

You will greatly improve your understanding of the impact of neutrophils on your health if you just concentrate on how many of them you have - your Absolute Neutrophil Count. With CLL, we have too many lymphocytes and this distorts percentage figures of other white blood cells (GPs regularly get caught up with this totally artificial problem too in my experience.)

I expect that the number of neutrophils per 100 leukocytes is simply changing because the number of your lymphocytes is reducing now that you've been on Ibrutinib for a while.

What's important is not becoming neutropenic - having a count below around 1.8 (varies with testing laboratory). Below 1.0 you need to make significant changes to your lifestyle to avoid infections, which hopefully won't be the case for you.

Neil

[Storygirl in reply to AussieNeil]

Thank you, Neil! That makes sense to me.

[Hoffy in reply to Storygirl]

When my ANC is below 1 I am give a shot of nupregen (sp?) to bring up my ANC. I am on I plus V and doing well so far. On treatment for 9 months

[Storygirl in reply to Hoffy]

Thank you for replying to me. The combination you are taking seems to work well for some of the people who have posted. Are you doing a trial?

[Hoffy in reply to Storygirl]

So far I am doing well. I am MRD negative in the blood after 9 months. I have a complete response on my MRI as well. Side effects have not been to much or bad.

[MsLockYourPosts Passed Volunteer]

After hearing that we should look at absolute numbers in the differentials, not the percents, the light bulb finally went on. I was comparing a couple of sets of labs while waiting for my doctor when I realized that the percents will always add up to 100. So if one percent goes up, another must go down to maintain 100 percent. So simple once that lightbulb goes on. I'm glad I had people, in the meantime, telling me to ignore the percents and only look at absolutes.

[Storygirl in reply to MsLockYourPosts]

Thank you for writing because your description made me realize I hadn't been understanding that the neutrophils are part of the count to 100 leukocytes. I was mixing up lymphocyte with leukocyte. Math I understand but not much biology! I've got a lot to learn.

[AussieNeil Partner Administrator in reply to Storygirl]

I get the terms lymphocytes and leukocytes mixed up too. Just remember lymph nodes relates to lymphocytes. 'Leuko' comes from the Greek "leukos" meaning white and cytes relates to cells - again derived from the Greek "kytos" meaning "hollow, as a cell or container". So leuko-cytes just means white (blood) cells, i.e. ALL of the different white cell types, which includes the neutrophil and lymphocyte types.

Neil

[Storygirl in reply to AussieNeil]

That is a good way to keep them straight. Sometimes I wish USA schools offered classical education with Greek and Latin. I've been away from cyberspace for a while being care giver to my grandson (maybe he and I can study Greek together). Thank you so much to helping me, Neil!