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Has anyone been given Neulasta?


Ann Cronin

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Hi, All,

Has anyone been given Neulasta after chemotherapy treatment? As I understand it, it's to boost your white blood cells. I'm going to ask at my chemo teaching session but I've not seen anyone mention this drug. My co-worker went through nclc treatment last year, she said she was given the drug 24 hours after each treatment.

 

Thanks,

Ann

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I have/had SCLC currently NED . I had concurrent Radiation (30 treatments over 6 weeks) and Chemo (4 rounds)  . My Radiation & Chemo were concurrent during my 1st 2 Chemo rounds and I could not have Neulasta due to impact on Radiation treatment. My Radiation treatment ended Dec 26/17 and was given Neulasta following my 3rd Chemo (ended Dec 28)  and 4th Chemo (ended 17 Jan/18) rounds. It does boost WBC count. Happy to answer any other questions you may have about my experience with Neulasta 

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I had Neupogen.It is basically the same drug, but Neulasta is the long lasting form. I started getting it after chemo infusions because I developed febrile neutropenia  from Carboplatin and Taxoterre. This means that I developed a fever because my neutrophils (white blood cells that deal with infections) went too low and I was having some sort of infection although they never identified what it was. I had antibiotics and recovered. Neutropenia is serious and can be lethal since there's nothing to resist bacteria.

 The Neupogen  I had to give to myself as a series of several once-daily injections in the abdomen beginning, I recall, a day or two after the chemo infusion. It wasn't hard to do, probbly similar to what diabetics do with insulin- little short needle.  Neulasta requires only one shot, so you don't have to give it to yourself. Actually, I suppose you could go in and get the nurse to give you the daily Neupogen.  Both of these drugs are really expensive, but a series of Neupogen is a little less so than  one Neulasta. Some people have bone pain as a side effect of these drugs (maybe because they stimulate the bone marrow to produce white cells?) but I didn't have any side effects at all and my neutrophils didn't crash again. My red blood cells did crash, causing severe anemia and I had a transfusion of red blood cells.

I hope this is helpful

Bridget O

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Thanks for the replies, all! Being that chemotherapy tends to bring those white cells down, I would think it would be standard to give the Neulasta (or Neupogen) instead of waiting for a potentially dangerous situation. I'll be inquiring next week....

Thanks, Ann

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Ann,

Oh yes, I've had many Neulasta injections.  I had a total of 18 infusions and likely about 10 total Neulasta shots in my treatment history.  It is a very painful shot and it caused pain in my long bones - legs & arms because it kick-starts the body on making white blood cells.

My infusion day was a Wednesday and each following Friday after infusion, I reported to the clinic for a blood test.  If my white cells were below a certain level, I'd get Neulasta.  If my red cells were below limit, I'd get Procrit.  Sometimes, I'd get both.

Stay the course.

Tom

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