scot.brown@gmail.com

Hi -

Hoping someone here can give me a bit of advice on a subject I know
nothing about....

My mum developed breastt cancer about 10 years ago, had chemotherapy
and a masectomy - along with lymph nodes being removed. This was
fortunately a success - and the cancer has not returned.

Over the last 3 years she has reguarly developed sever colds which
last for a week - and then disapear....these usually occurr every 3
months or so. No-one else in the family, or are in close contact with
her receive these.

The family doctor has been consulted - but has been very unhelpful -
not even undergoing a blood test. With my very limited knowledge - my
first thoughts are that her immune system is lacking white cells due
to the chemo treatment - although I also understand that the immune
system is very quick at recovery - and after 10 years - this may not
be the problem ??

Could anyone provide any advice whatsoever as to what course of action
we should take....what we should be asking our doctor to look
for....what alternatives there could be ?? Sorry - I appear to be
stabbing wildly in the dark.

Please feel free to answer and correspond with myself on the following
email address : scot.brown@gmail.com

Thanks in advance for any help whatsoever !!

Scot (a worried son)

bryan heit

Unfortunately, there is little you can do - your mothers poor immunity
is likely a direct result of how our immune system develops. You see,
there are several different types of white blood cells - the ones which
recognize viruses (i.e. colds, flu's) are called T-cells. T-cells
actually do a lot more then that, but we'll keep it simple for now...

Unfortunately for your mother, nearly all of the T-cells she'll make in
her lifetime were made before she turned 20 - after this the thymus
(where T-cells are made) begins to atrophy and t-cell production drops
dramatically. Her cancer therapy likely killed off most of her
pre-existing T-cells, and few will have been produced since (even if she
received a bone marrow transplant). This killing of white blood cells
is a common side-effect of chemotherapy, and in the case of leukemia the
desired outcome of the chemotherapy. If your mother is on
immunosupressives this could further aggravate this condition.

Luckily, your mom seems to be able to clear these infections - otherwise
she'd be frequently hospitalized with pneumonia. I know it's a hard
pill to swallow, but these frequent viral infections may be the
biological cost of her cancer therapy.

Bryan