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Blasts on CBC w/differential

Tagged: blasts in peripheral blood, CBC w/differential

This topic has 8 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 4 years, 10 months ago by Debbie Gill.

Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

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June 17, 2019 at 10:41 pm #46912

Debbie Gill
Participant

I had blood work done today, CBC w/differential. My CBC w/differential shows “blasts” of 3% this time, which it never has shown any before (and yes, I have a CBC w/differential every two weeks). This makes me a bit nervous because all of my blood counts are dropping to: my ANC is at 0.17, my WBC are at 1.9, and my platelets have now dropped to 37,000. My RBC and HGB are low (3.76 and 11.3, respectively), but not nearly as bad as everything else.

With the addition of the blasts showing on the CBC w/differential this time and the declining number, is this something that might be an indication that the disease is progressing? I know that everyone’s MDS is different, but am wondering if others have any experience with this.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts you might have.

Have a good evening!

Debbie

June 18, 2019 at 6:56 am #46913

Kathy Stermer
Participant

These are results you will want to discuss with your provider to explain. Possibly a bone marrow biopsy is warranted to check your disease status.

June 18, 2019 at 10:55 am #46914

Debbie Gill
Participant

Hi Kathy,

Thanks for your response. I know that I need to discuss this with my oncologist, which I will do in July (I will have one more CBC w/differential before the appointment). I was just wondering about the addition of blasts in the peripheral blood and if others have experienced it with declining numbers and what their experience was. I do know that MDS is different for everyone…a scary disease to be sure!

Thanks again! Have a great day!

Debbie

June 19, 2019 at 4:23 pm #46920

Steve Oehmen
Participant

Debbie, I am no expert but I have been forced to educate myself hurriedly since being diagnosed with myelofibrosis two months ago. Couple of things I have learned: Blasts are problematic if over 2% in the bloodstream, and one test I found to be very helpful is the test for Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH) which is referred to in the literature as a Tumor Marker. If you are diagnosed with a cancer, an LDH test can assess the rate at which cells are being destroyed by cancerous cells. I am High Risk and given my own most recent pair of LDH results – 381 and 689, respectively – I am guessing I have about a year to go. Apparently if that should climb over 1,000, then a year would be considerably too optimistic.

Best of luck to you!

June 19, 2019 at 5:29 pm #46921

Debbie Gill
Participant

Hi Steve,

Thank you so much for your response. This is very helpful. I was diagnosed in October 2018 with MDS (unclassified). This was the first time that blasts have shown up on my CBC w/differential, so my concern was that it may be something that indicates a progression of the disease. The oncologist that I had was monitoring my LDH, which was slowly rising each month, with the high at 258 on May 1st. I have a new oncologist and he doesn’t believe it is necessary to monitor it! I think I am going to advocate for it when I see him at the beginning of July.

Keeping positive thoughts for you, Steve! Best of luck and thank you once again!

Debbie

June 26, 2019 at 8:47 am #46932

Steve Oehmen
Participant

BTW Debbie, where do blast results show up on the CBC with Differential?

June 26, 2019 at 10:15 am #46933

Debbie Gill
Participant

Hi Steve,

If there are blasts, they will appear under the “Differential”. Mine showed up like this:

If there aren’t any, it won’t show up.

Debbie

June 26, 2019 at 8:28 pm #46936

Steve Oehmen
Participant

Great. Thanks. I had to get a copy of my bone marrow biopsy and found 3% there. Boy, there was a LOT of data there! Page after page.

June 26, 2019 at 9:54 pm #46937

Debbie Gill
Participant

Hi Steve,

The 3% that you see in you BMB is the amount found in your bone marrow, where if you see “blasts” and a percentage on your CBC w/Differential that is the percentage that is found in your circulating blood.

There was pages and pages of information in my BMB report too, but unfortunately I don’t understand 99% of it! lol

Hope you’re doing well!

Debbie
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