Three-time Breast Cancer Survivor Urges Cancer Patients to Take Control

Three-time Breast Cancer Survivor Urges Cancer Patients to Take Control



Three-time Breast Cancer Survivor Urges Cancer Patients to Take Control

About half of all cancer patients who receive treatment with chemotherapy will develop neutropenia (low white blood cell count), making them more vulnerable to infection. Despite advances in care, infections remain a major cause of hospitalization and death among cancer patients receiving chemotherapy.  More than 60,000 cancer patients are hospitalized each year due to infection. This week, Donna Deegan, a three-time breast cancer survivor, describes her first experience with neutropenia and its potentially deadly consequence of infection.  Donna is the founder and president of The Donna Foundation, which funds the critical needs of underserved women with breast cancer, and 26.2 with DONNA.

Read Donna’s story in Everyday Health.

To learn what CDC is doing to help prevent infections in cancer patients, visit http://www.PreventCancerInfections.org/