Low Platelet count

My husband DX05/09 is currently on Temador 5/23.  His platelet count has dropped to 63000, and his oncologists talked about postponing his next 5 days for a week or so.  Has anyone had any similiar experience?  He's been doing so good I hate the idea of holding off on the treatments or worse having to try something else.

My husband has had his platelets dip down and then they've bounced back up the next week. I hope it does for your husband. We have never had to postpone chemo- they haven't gone quite that low.  In the beginning, they adjusted him from 380mg to 360mg, and that seemed to help a lot.

After my second round of 5/23 my platelets dropped so low I had to have a transfusion and delay the next round for a month. After that they would bounce around, but I never had to delay again, or have another transfusion. Always had low white counts during the 21 months, but made it thru. We did have to adjust the doseage a couple of times.

Andy's chemo was delayed for a week this month -- we're going in tomorrow -- because of low platelets. Hope he's up tomorrow. I've been trying to encourage a little less coffee and a little more sleep but it's really hard.

Sarah

mom of Andy 27 dx gmb/pnet 1/09

My platelet count crashed to 6000 after the 42 day rads/temodar treatment. I was given an infusion of platelets and taken off temodar. But if it's working for him, couldn't they think about lowering the dosage before removing it from his treatment plan altogether? Yes, a short break will bring the counts up, but something about the drug is lowering them and it may just happen again.

M, the chemo lowers the counts for sure, because it interferes with ALL quickly dividing cells, whether bone marrow cells or glio tumor cells or epithelial cells inside the mouth.

Andy's platelets were higher today, yay, and he got his Carbo, but they lowered the dosage by 20% so that hopefully he can stay on track with it. And if the MRI next week looks good, like the crap is working, then he's going to go to Avastin every two weeks and Carbo every four, so that we don't have a rotating syncopated 2 and 3 week schedule which would almost be too much for the mother's calendar to bear! (OK if we had to, of course I could...)

I'm not sure how the pl. numbers work. You said 6000. But on my little record that we keep of the infusions and weekly blood counts, Andy's platelet numbers are 131, 124, 52, and today 194. The card says that the ref. range is 150-450. So I wonder if your platelet count was 60 on our scale, like we would multiply by 100 to be on your scale or system. Any thoughts on that?

Just relieved that the carbo went into my boy today.

Sarah

As usual, we're all right. You can say 150 or 150,000.

Here's the scoop on platelets:

Platelet count: The calculated number of platelets in a volume of blood, usually expressed as platelets per cubic millimeter (cmm) of whole blood. Platelets are the smallest cell-like structures in the blood and are important for blood clotting and plugging damaged blood vessels. Platelet counts are usually done by laboratory machines that also count other blood elements such as the white and red cells. They can also be counted by use of a microscope. Normal platelet counts are in the range of 150,000 to 400,000 per microliter (or 150 - 400 x 109 per liter). These values many vary slightly between different laboratories

http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=9939

Hello,

I agree with the person who replied with platelets crashing to 6,000.  Mine went down to 4,000 and I had to have 2 transfusions and 2 more 10 days later.  I agree with her to adjust the dosage down rather than postpone treatment.  I only took Temodar for 21 days on and 7 days off.  I had take 5 of the 2nd month when I had petechia and knew something was terribly wrong.  Anything under 20,000 doctors will order a transfustion and there is nothing you can do to get the platelet count up.   I'll be curious to see what the doctors decided.  I may at some point try Temodar again, but I'm not very anxious!