Husband with low blood cell counts suggested bone marrow test

Hello,

Thank you for asking your query at DoctorSpring.

Your Husband's blood test shows low White blood cell count, low platelet count and low Hemoglobin. This can be due to numerous reasons. 

Bone Marrow is the one place from which there blood cells are produced. So if you do biopsy and smear from this place, you can see what is causing this low counts. Without this we Doctor's will be clueless.

So the hurry is to find a diagnosis, which will help in suggesting a treatment if needed.

BM biopsy is a safe, quick procedure which done one a daily basis at Haematology departments. 

So to answer your question - Is it Bad ? Not as of now. We will need to get a diagnosis. And the hurry is for the purpose. 

Hope this helps

Please feel free to ask followup questions via email itself

Thank you

My Husbands results came back from his bone marrow biopsy, he has been diognosed with Hairy Cell Lukemia.
I have read this is not as commom as other Lukemias but has a fairly hi success rate with treatment.
He now has to have a course of kemo for five days then blood tests again 3 weeks after treatment.
Does how well the treatment work depend on how advanced the lukemia is and how much risk is there of him developing other cancers in the first two years as I have read it can double your chances.

Hello again,

Thanks for your reply.  The following would answer the prognosis of Hairy cell leukemia and chances of getting another cancer in future.

I would like to clarify that Hairy cell Leukemia abbreviated HCL has an excellent prognosis when treated correctly and can be considered as "curable" malignancy. However there may be few variants of the disease which has slightly less favorable prognosis which may require alternate form of chemotherapy or more aggressive therapy. To exactly know the type of the disease the doctor has to check with few tests which needs bone marrow biopsy.

Classical HCL can be well managed with chemotherapy and long term remission can be achieved. Future transformations are rare in HCL. I would strongly advice to stop SMOKING and ALCOHOL.  Future risks depend on accumulation of risk factors caused by smoking and alcohol. I would also suggest to be on regular follow up for high cholesterols.

Hope I have replied to your queries and would be available to answer in case of any doubts. Please feel free to ask followup questions via email itself.

Kind regards