Questions about Blasts

Posted by tascamman @twitt1949, May 8 6:29pm

I just had my 3 month blood test and then had a 1 1/2 hr phone conversation with my doctor.
She said I'm down a little on platelets and I don't remember the others but she did say I had Zero blasts. Is Zero blasts a good thing or bad thing?
We also asked her if taking a camping vacation in Aug if she sees any reason there might be a problem with my blood counts. She said go and have a good time. She sees no issues at all.

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alive | @alive | May 9 8:15am

Congratulations! Zero blasts is a great thing! It means that they couldn’t detect any cancer.

Lori, Volunteer Mentor | @loribmt | May 9 12:38pm

I second what @alive just told you!!! Zero Blasts is a great thing!! Go kick up your heels and have a great summer!!

tascamman | @twitt1949 | May 9 7:25pm

Thanks all, You make me fell all warm and fuzzy inside.

sunshine1983 | @sunshine1983 | May 22 4:01am

I believe blasts are found in patients with leukemia.

tascamman | @twitt1949 | May 23 7:55am

In reply to @sunshine1983 "I believe blasts are found in patients with leukemia." + (show)

@sunshine1983 You may be correct but I have MDS and my doctor has talked about blasts along with other mind blowing things. She may have told me but my old brain can't remember all that info. From what others have said someone with MDS can have blasts. If I have the info given to me, blasts are defective or bad/no good cells.

Lori, Volunteer Mentor | @loribmt | May 23 10:34am

In reply to @twitt1949 "@sunshine1983 You may be correct but I have MDS and my doctor has talked about blasts..." + (show)

Hi @twitt1949 (and @sunshine1983) I think we’ve talked about Blasts before. Blasts are immature cells which go on to develop into the various cells in our body. In terms of blood blast cells, they are rarely seen outside of the bone marrow where they mature into red cells, white cells and platelets, etc..
When they are seen in routine blood test that means they have traveled outside of the bone marrow into the peripheral blood. That’s generally not a good sign. It can indicate an issue within the bone marrow where too many blast cells are forming and not reaching maturity. Often it is attributed to a mutation on one single cell. That defective cancer cell may continue to replicate out of control and eventually crowd out other blood healthy blood cells. My doctor and I had a little joke…”Life is a blast until you find them on your labs”

Looking around for a good tutorial this morning, I found this one from Cleveland Clinic that talks about blood blast cells and their relevance to diseases such as MDS or other forms of leukemia.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/blast-cells
I hope you’re having a lovely holiday weekend!! We’re swinging from winter into summer with the hot temps heading our way! Hugs, Lori.

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