The normal cells in your body that are most at risk for being killed by chemotherapy are those that are growing at a fast rate. Because your body is constantly producing blood cells, these cells are often destroyed by chemotherapy. It's important that you understand the different types of blood cells and what each type does. The primary job of red blood cells is to carry oxygen to all the cells of your body. White blood cells are important in preventing and fighting off infections.
Platelets play a big part in stopping bleeding.
Neutropenia refers to a low level of white blood cells. Since chemotherapy kills both cancerous cells and other normal cells that grow at a fast rate, white blood cells are often destroyed. Since white blood cells play an important role in preventing infection, any time your white blood cell count drops, you are at higher risk of getting infection. What's more, since these cells also help to fight off infections once they're in the body, it's harder to get over an infection when your white counts are low. Therefore, you must do everything that you can to decrease the chance that you will become infected while you are receiving chemotherapy.