termsTerm
Bone marrow
aka marrow, bone-marrow, marrow suppression, myelosuppression, myelosuppressive, blood counts, blood count, low blood counts, neutropenia, neutropenic, anaemia, anemia, thrombocytopenia
The soft tissue inside bones where all blood cells are made. Chemotherapy damages it, causing the low blood counts that limit how much treatment a patient can take.
Overview
Blood stem cells in the marrow produce billions of red cells, white cells and platelets each day; because they divide constantly, they are collateral damage for most chemotherapy and for some ADC payloads, radiotherapy to bone and radioligands. The consequences are anaemia (fatigue), neutropenia (infection risk, sometimes life-threatening) and thrombocytopenia (bleeding), which together are the commonest reason for dose delays and reductions. Growth factors such as G-CSF speed recovery of white cells, and a marrow biopsy is how leukaemias and myeloma are diagnosed and monitored.
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