3 replies to this topic

[scuba]

http://bloodjournal....9/5198.abstract

Anyone on Sprycel and having Platelet count and related problems?

[Teresabourgeois]

I am!  Mine are staying 112 to 119 for 3 months now.  I guess it could be worse?  What are yours doing?

[Tedsey]

Although I am still green at understanding this stuff, if we are anything like mice in this case, this may be true.  What I gather from the abstract is that there is prior/on-going impairment to our PLT/MK development and function, (probably due to disease, i.e. CML, but it doesn't say).  For example, the part that says, "We propose that dasatinib causes thrombocytopenia as a consequence of ineffective thrombopoiesis, promoting MK differentiation but also impairing MK migration and proplatelet formation.  This, in turn, causes further issues when taking dasatinib."

I would believe it is a minority of people that this happens to.  I am going to guess it happens either to those who are slower to have their good stem cells become more populous, (fingers crossed here), or have other mutations where the TKIs do not work miracles for them.

Best of luck to all of us with very low PLT.

I got my occasional blip up (to 47,000) last Monday, but I usually stay in the 20-30 range and have been in this range for over a year.

Teds

[hannibellemo]

Michael,

My platelets are in the low normal range usually running around 160 - 180. I have other indications of platelets not functioning at 100% on occasion. I get petechiae if I scratch an itch on my hands, haven't noticed it anywhere else. I had a bout of purpura on the toes of both feet, eventually went away. My newest indicator, haven't seen anyone for varification, is very small clumps of petechiae (about the size of the 'o' on your keyboard, and less than a dozen of them and those are mostly gone. I might occasionally have small bruises that quickly go away but don't hurt.

If my mother were alive she would feel so vindicated. I remember as a kid she used to always poke my bruises and ask me if they hurt. It used to really piss me off because yeah, it hurt! Childhood leukemia was just beginning to get alot of press in the '50s, I guess. She was just a few decades off and not around to poke my bruises when I really needed her to!

I try not to get too excited about any of them - yeah, right! I'm at the point now when my other counts get into the normal range I think it's a bad thing because they've been just slightly south of normal for so long. Good luck!

Pat