Avoiding Infections Helps Keep Cancer Patients Healthy
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Infections are a major cause of illness and death in cancer patients, but simple steps and common sense can help keep patients healthy and improve their chances of a good recovery. An important first step is to reduce their risk of developing infections, which can be due to the cancer itself or to the therapy used to treat it.
“Even common infections that pose no serious threat to people without cancer can be hazardous to people with cancer or undergoing cancer therapy,†says Dr. Jeremy Young, an infectious disease specialist at the James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute at The Ohio State University. “Chemotherapy can do a great job of killing cancer cells, but it can also destroy white blood cells, one of the body’s first-line defenses against infection.â€
Infections are a particular problem for those with leukemia who receive bone-marrow or stem-cell transplants, says Dr. Steve M. Devine, director of the Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at The James.
Full Story: Avoiding Infections Helps Keep Cancer Patients Healthy
Source: Ohio State University Medical Center
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