Adenovirus And ANC

Tammy from Georgia, who is part of Ashtyn’s Army and has become a good friend of mine though we’ve never met, asked, “Will you give us an update on Adenovirus levels and her ANC?” ANC stands for “absolute neutrophil count”. Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell that are particularly important in helping the body fight infection. Engraftment, when the new marrow produced an ANC number over 500, happened on September 24th. Since then the ANC has made a very slow increasing trend as the new marrow builds and produces new cells. Every day the ANC is checked. The daily past two weeks results are as follows starting on October 8th: 1440, 1282, 1260, 1323, 1064, 1204, 1290, 1771, 1696, 2369,1911, 1560, 2035, 2150, and today at 2235, The GOAL is to have two consecutive days of over 2500 so Neupogen, a bone marrow stimulant, can be stopped. Venetoclax will then be started to keep any possible remaining leukemia cells at bay while her immune system becomes strong enough to do the job. ADENOVIRUS can be a life threatening virus to immunocompromised patients like Ashtyn. Currently there aren’t any FDA approved medications that effectively treat adenovirus. Even though the antiviral drug Cidofovir is being given, ones own immune system is the best way to get rid of the virus. Adenovirus levels are checked twice a week. For over a month the levels are as follows chronologically starting on September 23rd: 600,000, 450,000, 91,000, 150,000, 38,000, 110,000, 11,000, 21,000, and yesterday’s was 5,000. The GOAL is to have the level be less than 5,000 for one week in order to stop Cidofovir and hope her kidneys recover and potassium needs decrease. Her ANC, which goes hand in hand with the slow PLATELET engraftment requiring almost daily transfusions, and ADENOVIRUS are two of several issues that are keeping Ashtyn in the hospital. As you can tell from the numbers, the progress is slow but definitely headed in the right direction.