Blood tests do not have the ability to diagnose leukemia, but they can reflect the most basic peripheral blood condition of the patient. Leukemia tumor cells in the bone marrow usually result in abnormal blood work, and blood work is one of the ancillary tests to diagnose leukemia.
Patients with leukemia should also have repeated routine blood tests during and after chemotherapy.
- Regular blood tests are performed during the course of treatment in the hope of keeping track of the patient’s response to treatment so that the timing and dosage of drugs can be adjusted in a timely manner to achieve better efficacy while minimizing toxic side effects.
- Some chemotherapy regimens, such as a prestimulation regimen (CAG) that includes granulocyte colony-stimulating factor in the chemotherapy regimen, require specific blood values to determine the use of cytokines and the specific dose.
- After the course of treatment, patients are still asked to monitor their blood work closely in order to observe the toxic side effects of chemotherapy.
All chemotherapy causes varying degrees of myelosuppression, which varies in duration at the end of chemotherapy depending on the drug used, and timely knowledge of blood changes allows the physician to give timely supportive therapy and reduce the chance of bleeding and infection in the patient.