Low Blood Platelets

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Low Blood Platelets

This topic has 2 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 4 years, 5 months ago by ed williams.

Post

- December 8, 2019 at 5:20 am
- Quote
Thisisnottheend
Participant
Hi there,

Just finished a year of opdivo for stage 3c back at the end of September. All went fairly well…I’ve been having clear scans and the biggest issues I had during treatment was getting hypothyroidism, slight rash and being tired.

Anyway, fast forward to 2 weeks ago. I got my port out (yay!) as I just want to be done this season of my life. But I bled on and off for 2 weeks from the incision site. Also started getting really bad bruises on my legs for no apparent reason. A couple nights ago I woke up and my chest was drenched in blood from the port site. Went to cancer care emergency in the morning, got blood tests and it turns out that it was the opdivo that gave me low blood platelets which meant I couldn’t stop bleeding. So my question is, does the fact that I’m still getting symptoms from opdivo over 2 months after stopping treatment give me a better prognosis? And has anyone else had low blood platelets due to taking opdivo?

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Replies

- - December 8, 2019 at 8:21 am
  - Quote
  MelMel
  Participant
  Based on the following study, I would say YES!!!
  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6557745/
  “Daily administration of 60 mg of prednisolone restored the patient’s platelet count and platelet-associated IgG. We also found that there was significant shrinkage of the primary lesion and that stable disease was achieved. One must be aware of this relatively rare side effect and the unusual clinical findings that could be associated with immunoreaction.”
  The study is of a patient with non small cell lung tumor who received Opdivo. It is a rare side effect but apparently one associated with a positive outcome.
  Melanie
- - December 8, 2019 at 3:07 pm
  - Quote
  ed williams
  Participant
  Hi there Anon, side effects can happen at any time during treatment and has been seen months to even as long as a year later after stopping with the combination of ipi+nivo or either as a monotherapy ipi or nivo. In the article that MelMel posted it stated nivo can be seen up to 20 weeks (5months) after therapy in the blood. I hope you have good scans going forward and the beast doesn’t come back and here is a short video from Dr. Postow and at the 2min 19 sec point he talks about bone marrow side effects. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=7IFNFeB3dn0&feature=emb_logo

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