People's reactions seem to differ -- Barry had his RBC and platelets drop due to the carboplatin, but not to any level that would have required Procrit or a transfusion. Another patient on exact same protocol (getting carbo only) had to have Procrit and also, platelet transfusions and the folks at Hopkins tld her they had never seen anyone's blood counts drop so low from such a (relatively) small dose of this drug. Her husband told us Tuesday when we saw them at the hospital that she has always reacted very stongly to any medication and the effect of the carbo was not unexpected. (Having said that, she is now doing well and recovering from treatment ).

However, these transfusions are apparently not uncommon -- when we were at the hospital they were having a big drive at the cancer center to get platelet donations, and the brochure being handed out indicated that a hign percentage of the chemo patients end up needing platelet transfusions.

Gail