CHEMOTHERAPY DRUGS WEAKEN IMMUNE SYSTEM
White Blood Cells Damaged By Cancer Treatment
Perhaps the biggest irony of how chemicals can harm the immune system comes from research involving nurses in cancer treatment centers. The study, conducted in 1990 by the Institute of Medical Research and Occupational Health in Yugoslavia, was designed to investigate whether nurses working in cancer treatment offices showed more chromosome abnormalities on their lymphocytes (the chromosomes on lymphocytes contain the genes which direct lymphocyte function and it is the lymphocytes that direct the body’s assault against cancer cells). Nurses in cancer treatment settings are exposed continuously to toxic chemotherapy drugs such as fluoruacil, cyclophosphamide and others. The results found that nurses working in these environments did in fact have more abnormalities in lymphocyte chromosome structures. One chromosome damage test called "Accentric Fragments," showed twice the abnormalities for nurses working with the chemotherapy drugs as those who did not.