Hello, my husband has been done with radiation treatments since November of 2006 and Chemo since October of 2006 (Cisplatin & Erbitux) and he continues to have low blood counts; hemoglobin, white blood cells & platelets. My husband had tongue cancer with 3 of his left lymph nodes in his neck also testing positive for cancerous cells. Since his treatment ended there has no re-occurrence. We have now gone to two different doctors at the University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic regarding his low blood counts and they can't see to find anything wrong with him. He continues to need transfusions every 2 weeks. The doctors would seem to think he has either Aplastic Anemia or MDS but the bone marrow tests do not confirm this. In the mean time the doctor at the U wants to do immune suppression treatment which is the standard treatment for Aplastic Anemia. We are leery of doing any treatment considering we don't know what is exactly wrong. I should say that my husband had cancer when he was 12 and got chemo then, he is now 33 years old. The doctors tend to think his previous treatments may have contributed to this but they do not know. Does anyone have experience with low blood counts long after their treatment for head/neck cancer has ended? Thanks, Heidi

I only had radiation but my white blood count is low after 3 years. In discussing with the my doctors they seem to indicate that a low white after radiation is not uncommon and it may never get back to normal. For me it has not been a problem. I have been healther than I have ever been in fact get less colds than I use too because my tonsils are reduced to nothing from the radiation.