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Thrombocytopenia refers to a state where bone marrow, which produces blood essences, is affected by anticancer drugs, resulting in a slowdown of its function to produce blood (i.e., myelotoxicity). In this state, new platelets are not produced any longer, and the number of platelets decreases from the normal value of 200,000 to 250,000/ml. This leads to easy bleeding. A person will easily bleed if their platelet count drops below the normal range. If it drops further to below 30,000/ml, many visible bleedings occur in the nose or under the skin (stigmatic dots under the skin, and, if the condition worsens, stigmatic spots), and they are slow to stop.
Treatment with anticancer drugs usually does not end in one or two sessions. It is repeated many times, resulting in the deterioration of the bone marrow’s function to regenerate, and gives rise to severe myelotoxicity in some cases.
Anticancer drugs may sometimes, though not frequently, cause impaired hepatic functioning as well, which inhibits the production of clotting factors in the liver. This also contributes to easy bleeding.
In daily life, patients may suffer hypodermic bleeding simply by hitting their body lightly on an object, or roughly rubbing something on their skin. They may also bleed in the nose by just wiping their nose, or the gums by rubbing them roughly with a toothbrush, or in the anus by hard stools. If platelets diminish further, patients may even bleed in the brain or digestive tract. Following chemotherapy, you may suffer sores in your mouth or digestive tract, bleed in your mouth and find blood in your saliva, or find your stools black with blood from your digestive tract. If you find any such bleeding, go and see your doctor.
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