• Int. J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Phys. · Oct 1995

    Analysis of weekly complete blood counts in patients receiving standard fractionated partial body radiation therapy.

    • F E Yang, F Vaida, L Ignacio, A Houghton, J Nauityal, H Halpern, H Sutton, and S Vijayakumar.
    • Department of Radiation and Cellular Oncology, Michael Reese/University of Chicago, IL, USA.
    • Int. J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Phys. 1995 Oct 15;33(3):617-17.

    PurposeHematopoiesis is among the most sensitive systems in the body to radiation. Routine complete blood counts (CBCs) are common in clinical radiotherapy practice. Only a few studies have attempted to characterize the behavior of peripheral blood levels during partial body radiation therapy with field sizes smaller than those used in hemibody or total nodal irradiation. Such information is needed to identify which patients are at risk for cytopenia and require close monitoring.Methods And MaterialsIn 1993, 412 new patients were seen at Michael Reese Hospital for radiotherapy. A total of 972 weekly CBCs were identified for 155 patients receiving a minimum of 5 weeks of treatment for breast, prostate, lung, gynecological, or head and neck malignancies. Linear regression models were fitted to the weekly CBC values for those patients who had pretreatment CBC values recorded. Factors affecting starting levels, rates of decline, and nadirs during treatment were determined for leukocytes, platelets, and hemoglobin.ResultsLeukocytes declined most dramatically during the first week of treatment (16% from pretreatment to Week 1 levels) and then at a rate of 3.3% per week from Week 1 to Week 7 (p < 0.001). Total mean leukocyte decrease over 7 weeks of therapy was 30%. Platelets declined 9% on average during the first week of therapy and then at a mean rate of 1.4% per week (p < 0.02). A statistically significant decrease in hemoglobin levels could not be detected. No difference in the rate of decrease could be found for different disease sites, age groups, or amount of marrow irradiated. The effects of chemotherapy were variable, depending on blood element and whether therapy was sequential or concomitant. The odds of a nadir < 2000 counts/mm3 for white blood count (WBC), < 50,000 counts/mm3 for platelets, and < 8.0 g/dl for hemoglobin were all well below 5%. A strong correlation existed between starting CBC values and nadirs; patients with lower Week 1 CBC levels were most likely to have the lowest nadirs.ConclusionsLow CBC levels during radiation therapy are likely to be the result of other medical problems that cancer patients face. Regional irradiation with small field sizes (< 40% of total body marrow) typically used in clinical radiotherapy is unlikely to be the cause of marrow depression significant enough to warrant medical intervention. Blood levels taken during the first week of treatment (Week 1) can be used to determine risks of developing critical nadirs. Localized breast and prostate cancer patients are unlikely to require routine CBCs if initial levels are normal. Routine CBC levels on all radiation oncology patients without other reasons for hematopoietic depression requires reevaluation, as millions of dollars are spent on unnecessary testing. If weekly CBC blood levels are avoided in localized breast and prostate cancer patients, this alone could potentially result in a savings of as much as $40 million a year nationally.

      Pubmed     Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…

Want more great medical articles?

Keep up to date with a free trial of metajournal, personalized for your practice.
1,694,794 articles already indexed!

We guarantee your privacy. Your email address will not be shared.