The study explains why certain patients develop severe
infections after chemotherapy and points to ways of averting this side-effect
Cancer chemotherapy can be a life-saver, but it is fraught
with severe side effects, among them an increased risk of infection. Until now,
the major criterion for assessing this risk has been the blood cell count: if
the number of white blood cells falls below a critical threshold, the risk of
infection is thought to be high. A new model built by Weizmann Institute
mathematicians in collaboration with physicians from the Meir Medical Center in
Kfar Saba and from the Hoffmann-La Roche research center in Basel, Switzerland,
suggests that for proper risk assessment, it is essential to evaluate not only
the quantity of these blood cells, but also their quality, which varies from
one person to another.