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Blood counts decrease

To start treatment for cml cp for newly diogonesed pateient with dasatinib/sprecel why all cell count decreases. It targets only wbc why rbc and platelets decreases. Any can explain me.

Hi there,

Dasatinib / Sprycel works very well on white cells, as you know. White cells are one type of "myeloid" cell, other main types being red blood cells and platelets. As the "M" in CML is myeloid, dasatinib to a greater of lesser extent ends up acting on all myeloid cells. 

Have a look at the diagram below - you'll see that a blood stem cell can produce all sorts of cells, but the myeloid ones are on the left hand side and to put it simple, these are the ones which dasatinib (and all CML TKIs) work on. The branch on the right are Lymphoid cells, which other types of leukaemia are concerned with, for example CLL and ALL.

I hope this helps.

David.

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