Cancer and its treatment can affect the part of your body that fights infection (immune system) in lots of different ways. This might make you more prone to picking up infections. For example, cancers like leukaemias can stop the bone marrow from working properly. If this happens, it means there aren’t enough healthy white blood cells (neutrophils) in your body to fight infection. Cancer treatments can also cause your bone marrow to stop making white cells. When there aren’t enough white cells being made by your bone marrow to fight infection, this is called neutropenia. In this section we have info on:
- how your body protects you
- how treatment can cause infection
- how to avoid infection
- if you have an infection
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