4. Leukemia
Leukemia is a common cancer in children. It takes on acute and chronic forms. Acute leukemia develops quickly, and people develop life-threatening symptoms within a matter of weeks of the cancer’s origin. It affects the bone marrow and lymphatic system. Leukemia causes the bone marrow to produce white blood cells that are immature and don’t do their jobs correctly. They proliferate and live longer than normal cells. The overabundance of malfunctioning white blood cells allows infections to take over the body.
5. Radiation Treatments
Radiation therapy is used to treat many types of cancer, such as cancer of the head, neck, throat and breast. The radiation not only damages and kills cancer cells, but it also destroys and damages healthy cells. This may result in a low white blood cell count. The higher the dose and longer the duration of radiation therapy, the more likely it is to lower the number of leukocytes.