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- Guarding Against Infections
-
- Margaret Poscher, MD, Lawrence Mintz, MD, W. Lawrence Drew, MD, PhD, Ernest H. Rosenbaum, MD, and Malin Dollinger, MD
- Adapted for the Canadian edition by Ronald Feld, MD
-
- Everyone with cancer runs a high risk of catching some
- sort of infection. This is so because the cancer and the methods used to fight it affect the immune system
- defenses that normally keep infections at bay.
- Our first line of defense against infection is the
- outer and inner linings of the body—the skin and
- the mucous membranes. Both these barriers are
- punctured by the invasive procedures necessary to
- diagnose or treat cancer problems. Chemotherapy
- and radiation are particularly damaging to mucous membranes. And the needle in the arm to draw
- blood for testing, the IV lines, the catheters and