Having cancer and undergoing cancer treatment can weaken the immune system.

1. Infections After
Cancer Treatment

2. Having cancer and undergoing
cancer treatment can weaken the
immune system.
This, in turn, makes the body
more vulnerable to pick up
infections or develop fever or flu
frequently.
There are different reasons why a
cancer patient may get infection
after series of cancer treatment.

3. Chemotherapy Induced Infections
Chemotherapy, though a treatment for cancer, has severe effects
on the body. Firstly, it affects the production of normal white blood
cells in bone marrow.
Usually, white blood cells help in fighting off infection. Post
chemotherapy, if the counts of white blood cells are lower, a
patient is at an increased risk of infections. Infections may also
aggravate more quickly; for instance, a trivial or small infection
could become fatal within hours if left untreated.

4. Doctors generally guide their patients to look for signs
of infections after the treatment.

5. Whilst not all drugs for chemotherapy affect the bone marrow or
increase risk of an infection, many of them do.
It generally depends on the drug you have been given, dose of
drug, age of patient, general health, and stage and type of cancer.
Sometimes doctors also give antibiotics during chemotherapy in
order to ensure that patients can fight off infection or even stop
getting one.

6. Radiation Therapy Induced Infections
Radiation therapy helps in
destroying cancer cells from the
treated area. In course of
treatment, even the normal cells
are affected by radiation,
especially the fast growing cells
like the ones in the hair and skin.
However, these normal cells can
repair themselves better than the
cancer cells.

7. Radiation also affects the cells inside the bone marrow, which
produces blood cells like white blood cells that normally fight off
infections. However, radiation only affects that part of the body
which is being treated for cancer.

8. Infection After Surgery
Infection could be side effects of
surgery. The chance of infection
depends on the type of surgery
and its extensiveness. Surgeon may
recommend antibiotics for
reducing the risk of getting an
infection post surgery.
After the surgery, patients may
have some drainage tubes placed
inside their body to ensure fluid
does not collect around the site of
surgery.

9. Infection from Biological Therapy
Biological therapy is basically a treatment with substances made
naturally by our body. Immunotherapy is also a biological therapy
which uses substances which are involved in fighting an infection.
The body produces chemicals known as cytokines when an
infection occurs.
Cytokines are mainly responsible for the general signs of infection,
which includes fever. As treatments, the body is likely to have them
in larger quantities than usually produced. This is one of the
reasons why flu like symptoms such as fever is common.

10. Infections from Stem Cell and Bone
Marrow Transplant
There are some extensive
treatments for cancer, which
includes stem cell transplant and
bone marrow transplant.
A patient may be given high dose
of chemotherapy along with
radiotherapy to kill cancer cells.
Higher doses of these drugs can
damage the bone marrow.

11. So, stem cell or bone marrow
infusion is needed to replace the
lost bone marrow.
During this treatment, the body
becomes more susceptible to
infections affecting the digestive
system and skin.