Infection
Effects of chemotherapy
Chemotherapy can have a big effect on your immune system and might reduce your body’s defense against infection. This is because chemo lowers the production of white blood cells by the bone marrow. People on chemo are particularly at risk of picking up infections from about seven to ten days after the start of chemo, for about a week.
Effects of radiotherapy
Radiotherapy can have a mild, temporary effect on your immune system but it probably won’t affect you immunity too much, unless you’ve had radiotherapy to the whole of your body (called total body irradiation or TBI).
Effects of surgery
Surgery can make you more likely to get an infection because it makes a break in the body’s natural defenses, such as the skin or membranes (layers of tissue, like the lining of your mouth).
More information on infection can be found on the Click4Tic website.
