high lymphocytes and low neutrophils

[shay123665]

i have high lymphocytes and low neutrophils, can this mean cancer? they are both not even off by 1%. help?

[81ue]

It could be caused by a viral infection per dr. internet. Have u had any new live vaccinations or illness exposure of your own or people around you? Is this on every test or the first one with this result? You are very near normal ranges. Was your own doctor worried about it and asked for follow up tests?

[shay123665 in reply to 81ue]

This is my first exam that comes out high in any type of way. He was concerned and sent me to do another wbc blood count tomorrow. He checked for any abnormalities such as swollen lymph nodes, he also checked under my armits etc but everything was fine. He does over react for everything so it scared me when he said lymphoma could be of concern even after showing no symptoms. He said if the tests come out high again he will send me to a pathologist so Im very worried this could be some type of cancer. What do you think?

[81ue in reply to shay123665]

The second blood test and option to have a pathologist look at it will be your best way to find out the diagnosis - if any. Just need to be patient with the pathololgist report if they are looking at samples to determine a diagnosis. Since you didn't note any viral infections your doctor is proceeding carefully to come up with the answer, which is a good thing

[AussieNeil Partner Administrator in reply to shay123665]

Your WBC is absolutely fine at 4.97. Normal range is 4.0 to 10.1, so your WBC is actally BELOW the middle of the normal range. What has happened is that your neutrophil count (polys) has dropped, most probably due to a virus as 81ue said. It is normally around 66% of your WBC, not 36.4%, Because your WBC % has to be 100%, a drop in neutrophil/segs percentage means other WBC type percentages have to go up, even if the absolute counts are fine, as in your case.

Your absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) is calculated by multiplying your lymphocyte % of 52.1% by your absolute WBC of 4.97, giving an ALC of 2.59, which sits quite nicely within the normal (reference) range of between 1.0 and 4.8. Your neutrophil/segs count however is 36.4% x 4.97 or 1.8. The normal (reference) range is between 1.8 and 8.0, so yours is low but still just within the healthy range.

Your doctor was probably checking your nodes, particularly those under your armpits to see if they were swollen - an absolutely normal response to infection. To repeat, you do NOT have a raised lymphocyte count, but a low, but still healthy neutrophil count. Your next blood test will probably be more normal, but if not, it should be probably be repeated again in a month's time to give time for a possible infection to clear.

I would hope that you misheard/misinterpreted what your doctor said about lymphoma, because as you can see, you have absolutely nothing to worry about on the basis of your blood test results. I'm sorry you became scared about having cancer, because there is absolutely nothing in your blood test results to suggest that.

Neil

[shay123665 in reply to AussieNeil]

The way you broke it down and explained everything has me much more calm now, I trust your judgement, however my doctor is very very dramatic and he did mention lymphoma as a topic of worry, i took those blood tests on monday and he sent me to do them again and not even a week has passed but just hearing that it cant be cancer is a sight of relief.

[AussieNeil Partner Administrator in reply to shay123665]

You would need to have a swollen node/nodes without evidence of infection and probably a lymphocyte count considerably above 5 to be considered as possibly having lymphoma. Everyone in this community would be thrilled to have your lymphocyte blood counts. Some of us have lymphocyte counts of 200 or more, though more typically they would be somewhere between 15 and 50. In my opinion, it was irresponsible of your doctor to unnecessarily scare you.

Neil

[shay123665 in reply to AussieNeil]

thank you!

[AussieNeil Partner Administrator in reply to shay123665]

PLEASE tell your doctor that you were afraid you might have cancer and got help from a community of people with lymphoma who told you that you don't even have lymphocytosis (a raised lymphocyte count). Tell him that your lymphocyte count is completely, absolutely normal. If he scared you, then he could be unnecessarily scaring others and that's not okay. You might like to print out your post and replies and give it to him.

Actually it's the poor design of your lab test result printout that is the cause of your unnecessary scare. It should include absolute results and not mislead your doctor into thinking you had lymphocytosis. Your experience happens several times a year in this community - unnecessarily scared people thinking they have cancer because of high percentages of lymphocytes in the absence of a high absolute lymphocyte count is misinterpreted.

Neil

[shay123665 in reply to AussieNeil]

I will let him know, thanks for all your replies! sorry that I had to post this here I was just really worried

[benmarto in reply to shay123665]

Also you are not anemic and your platelet count is normal. Your bone marrow appears to be healthy. No evidence of cancer.

[Ironj in reply to AussieNeil]

I agree with you Neil , telling someone that is reckless. If it were me I’d be changing Dr’s. If he’s scaring people without substantial evidence to back that statement up , that’s a Dr I’d run as fast as I could to a new Dr.

in addition I agree he should wait a month and run a new CBC to see how thing look.

I’ll be honest and say when I had my biopsy that confirmed my SLL. My Dr called on the phone and was very quick and said John you have lymphoma... I think I have ptsd from that call. Some Drs need to learn how to handle or speak to people. I was calmed down when I went to my oncologist and he explained that my SLL is a very indolent Chronic condition and not to worry at that time the shock was diminished from the Phone call that I had Lymphoma. Sorry for the long reply but this post hit me , scaring this person for no reason. John

[DisneyMom in reply to Ironj]

Omg John, I had a very similar experience, but it was an ER dr saying "if it's not lymphoma, I don't know what it could be" that made me think I must have stage 4 non hodgkin's and I only had another 5 years to live and would never see my babies grow up. Definite PTSD from that...

Carol 🇨🇦

[Ironj in reply to DisneyMom]

It’s definitely not a way to just nonchalantly tell someone you have lymphoma like they are just ordering lunch. They need to really ease there way into it and explain what it is and try and give people some comfort. .. I also got spooked when I was reading what my SLL specialist put down on my medical records that I had Ann Arbor stage 4 lymphoma. I called him immediately and said what’s this mean !!!! He said means nothing other then the fact you had a lymph node come back positive and you also have a presence of it in your bone marrow it automatically is called stage 4. I ask if it is a worse prognosis and he said no. It’s all scary to hear or read unless it’s thoroughly explained to someone receiving this information.

[sun_flower in reply to AussieNeil]

Hear hear AussieNeal l totally agree.

[shay123665 in reply to AussieNeil]

Hey Neil and everyone, just wanted to let you know that I got my results from my second blood test and everything came out perfect, I couldnt sleep for about 3 days before that and I was scared out of my mind researching and finding information to see if I could calm down and nothing really worked until I came on this page and you guys replied to me and supported me and even calmed me down a little so I just wanted to thank everyone on here and you Neil for being so nice and explaining everything to me. You guys are amazing and deserve the best, I hope you all get better and I am glad to have come across such great people. Thanks for all the support and all the replies.

[AussieNeil Partner Administrator in reply to shay123665]

Thank you very much for letting us know. I'm not at all surprised by your good result :).

While your worry and stress were totally avoidable by correct advice from your doctor in the first place, your experience does illustrate the danger inherent in searching for information about a suspected health condition from "Dr Google". In doing so, it is easy to get reinforcing information provided to you, simply because others liked a site - it was popular rather than accurate. Seeing a doctor on the other hand, should result in questions being asked (and perhaps additional tests being performed) that you wouldn't know are relevant, resulting in finding a much more common (but boring) cause for your blood test results - an infection.

Neil

[The_Eagle]

Lab test come back all the time with different numbers. Take it easy probable nothing but have your Doctor check anyway. Mine always come back a few points up or down not unusual

[shay123665 in reply to The_Eagle]

Thank you, just the thought of something being possibly wrong specially when its something as big as cancer is really worry some for me. and the doctor honestly made things worse. I probably wont even sleep tonight but im looking forward to my lab test tomorrow and hopefully the numbers fall within the normal range.

[The_Eagle in reply to shay123665]

relax they will my WBC is 188,000 all my blood is either high or low going to start treatment next month because I need cataracts surgery before starting. This will be my 3rd time.

[Shalom33 in reply to shay123665]

Will you let us know? Peace be with you.

[LovecuresCLL]

Just repeat the bloodwork in a month. That will settle your doctor when it goes back to normal.

[85veronica30]

Hello

Can someone please help me read the results of my daughter blood. I am desperate, i am from Belize

[Newdawn Administrator in reply to 85veronica30]

Hi Veronica,

I see you’ve joined this community today presumably to ask this question. I’m afraid we can’t really offer medical interpretation on here though I’m sorry you’re so worried about your daughter. If your daughter is a child, I’m afraid this site isn’t suitable because CLL affects primarily older adults.

Are you not able to ask her doctor for assistance with this?

Newdawn

[85veronica30 in reply to Newdawn]

thank you so much for your reply, yes i read about this on google. Thank you, where i live is very difficult to get a doctor advice due to Covid-19, our doctors are very difficult to reach them.