Lowered lymphocyte levels mean lowered survival times in cancer; herbs such as Astragalus, echinacea, Glycyrrhiza (licorice), Ligustrum, Cat’s Claw and Turmeric can all help to rectify this; orthodox medicine has nothing.
What are Lymphocytes?
Lymphocytes are the cornerstone of your immune attack on cancer.
Cytotoxic T-cells (CD8 cells) and Natural Killer (NK) lymphoid cells play a direct role in attacking and killing rogue cells and cancer cells in the body. This is principally through the Innate immune system.
T-helper cells (CD4 cells) can release small molecules called cytokines which are essential to B-lymphocyte development and the Adaptive immune system, the second part of the immune system. B-lymphocytes which have reacted to pathogens develop into antibodies and can have ‘cellular memory’ to protect you against future attacks.
Lymphocytes, particularly CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells, and NK cells are crucial to the immune response against many cancers. And to your improved survival (1).
If Lymphocytes are depleted, do you recover?
The answer is 'that depends' on the cause of your depletion. In cases of infection, lymphocyte levels typically return to normal when the infection is over.
In chronic conditions (bone marrow disorders, autoimmune diseases, persistent HIV infection), only by treating the cause might lymphocyte levels see improvement over time.
After chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or taking antibiotics, especially doxycycline, there is some recovery to some cells over time. For example, after certain breast cancer chemotherapy drugs, CD8 T cells and NK cells may recover to near normal levels after 9 months, but B-lymphocytes and CD4 T-cells may only partially recover, and are likely to remain significantly depleted along with your adaptive immune system (6). Similarly with radiotherapy, lymphocyte counts drop dramatically, and although they may improve after 3-6 months they rarely return to baseline, especially if the radiotherapy lasts more than a few days (7).
With antibiotics, one study found that after completing an antibiotic regimen, patients experienced a delay in the recovery of absolute neutrophil count (ANC) and white blood cell (WBC) count, with reductions noted up to 47 days post-treatment: this delay could potentially impact immune recovery during critical periods (8).
Conventional treatments and Lymphocytes
To reinforce this, we conducted an AI search across the whole Internet and the results were alarming - cancer patients have lowered lymphocytes leading to lowered survival. Cancer treatment plays a big part in this.
i) Chemotherapy can cause short-term depletion of all main sub-types of circulating lymphocytes, with prolonged depletion of B and CD4+ T-lymphocytes.
ii) After chemo, the B-lymphocytes show an increased proportion of naive cells having lost many ‘memory’ cells.
iii) Lower lymphocyte counts are associated with worse survival outcomes in patients receiving systemic chemotherapy.
iv) Lower lymphocyte counts after radiotherapy are associated with worse survival outcomes.
v) There is some research that some chemotherapy may enhance the ability of NK cells to attack cancers.
I have noticed that almost all previously treated cancer patients have lymphocyte counts below 30 per cent of 'normal', and people who have had recent chemotherapy tend to hover around the 20 per cent mark.
Confusion rules over measurement of Lymphocyte levels
Lowered lymphocytes means a lowered ability to attack your cancer and lowered survival times.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, adults should have between 1,000 and 4,800 lymphocytes per microliter of blood (2). That is an incredibly broad range! And it's not agreed by MD Anderson (3) who say that your white cells in total should be 4,000 to 10,000 per microliter and lymphocytes should be about 40% of total, i.e. 1,600 to 4,000 per microliter. This is a significant discrepancy between two top hospitals.
In American blood tests, your Lymphocytes are measured as a percent of total. 20-49% was the range in one of my patient’s blood tests two days ago. But Cleveland Clinic says it’s 20-40%. And according to 2020 research (4), lymphocytes should be 18-42% of total white cells. Another range, another set of figures. Is this really an imprecise science?
Relative vs Absolute
And here we come to another big issue. If you are going to be able to attack your cancer cells successfully, you want high absolute numbers of lymphocytes.
But these US blood tests measure relative levels - a percentage of the white cells. This can give misleading results. If the white cells in total are diminished by chemo and radiotherapy and fall from 100 to 60, you end up with lymphocytes falling from 40% to 30% you may feel 10% drop is not bad, But actually your absolute levels fell fro 40% of 100, to 30% of 60; i.e. from 40 to 18 in absolute terms or 55%.
Using percentages in the USA may be totally misleading to the average patient. Absolute numbers are what matters.
So what should absolute levels of Lymphocytes be?
Last week, I was sent blood tests from two people in the UK and two in Australia. Two hospitals said that the maximum should be 4.0, one said 3.0 and one said 4.8 per microlitre of blood. ONEDAYTESTS, a UK company who have microbiologists specialising in blood tests say the maximum should be 4.8 (10*9/L).
Now we come to the real problem. The Minimum. Two Hospitals said 1.8, one said 1.7 and the fourth said 1.0. ONEDAYTESTS say 1.0.
Now, I don't know about you, but I find it quite alarming that no one can agree on these figures in the year 2025 and it seems perfectly acceptable to have your lymphocytes fall by up to 80% (from 4.8 to 1.0) if having a conventional therapy like chemo or radiotherapy, when these are your main attack cells and a loss damages your survival hopes.
Worse, I had a patient in the UK told by her oncologist that 1.7 was too low; and a patient in Australia told 0.7 was OK. Go figure!
From everything I have read, I think you want levels around 2.4-2.6 x 10*9/L to fight a cancer.
How can you increase your lymphocyte levels?
And it gets worse. It appears conventional medicine is currently almost useless at increasing your lymphocytes. Drug companies say so themselves!
Websites such as WebMD (owned by 5 Pharma companies) state that there isn’t a way to increase low lymphocytes. They just come back when the infection has passed. Now I am getting really worried. Cleveland Clinic suggests an Immunoglobulin shot to bring your lymphocytes back up. BRAVE AI search doesn’t report a single conventional drug that can boost lymphocytes after chemo or radiotherapy and thus boost your survival chances.
This is damning.
Prpfessor Soon-Shiong
Now before you think I'm chasing windmills, I'm not alone in my concerns and the need to take action. Professor Patrick Soon-Shiong is a cancer researcher and Biotech entrepreneur. He has long argued that lymphocytes and in particular the Absolute Lymphocyte Count (ALC) are critical to cancer survival. At an ASCO conference recently, he said that, "Every 10 percent decrease in ALC from baseline is associated with a 48 percent increase risk of death.''
Soon-Shiong is about to launch his own products to boost lymphocytes.
Herbs to the rescue
If Immunoglobulins help, you could try Non-hormonal Whey Protein instead - It boosts glutathione, contains all the main amino acids, plus many peptides and immunoglobulins.
But we do have another solution: Herbs.
Herbs are particularly good at boosting lymphocytes and helping with cytokines. I am reminded of when I helped my daughter Catherine. Just one round of Temozolomide and her white cell levels tanked. She couldn’t have a second round. They gave her daily injections - a complete waste of time. She came here to my house in the South of France. Every day she lay by the swimming pool - I took her Turmeric, Echinacea, Astragalus and Cat’s Claw, and watched her swallow them. A month later she flew back to the UK to see her oncologist. She rang up and screamed at me. “What have you done to my white cells? They’ve gone through the roof!”
Sorry, I thought that was the idea! Obviously Hospitals and oncologists don’t expect this.
There then followed about 28 months where Catherine had no conventional treatment at all and was stable.
So do Herbs really Help?
We regularly suggest patients take echinacea during radiotherapy; and often, after chemotherapy or a dose of antibiotics are over, we will suggest echinacea and astragalus.
Echinacea purpurea, Astragalus membranaceus, and Glycyrrhiza glabra (licorice) have been used for hundreds of years and have each been proven to boost lymphocytes in research. Be clear: these are NOT antioxidants. Doctors cannot claim they will get in the way of their wonder drugs.
Another herb much used in China to boost the immune system is Ligustrum lucidum.
Cat’s Claw has been shown to boost the immune system and help cytokine production.
Turmeric - Numerous research studies indicate that turmeric can stimulate lymphocytes, enhancing their functions, while simultaneously inducing apoptosis.
Turkey Tail organic mushroom powder is extremely good at boosting MK cells.
If your lymphocytes are below range, or in range but nowhere near the top, you should start with Echinacea, Cat’s Claw, Astragalus and Turkey Tail to increase the most important aspect of your immune system and increase your personal odds of survival.
Lymphocytes - the bottom line
Remember - Lower percentage lymphocytes = much lower absolute levels of lymphocytes.
And Lowered Absolute levels of lymphocytes, damage your survival times.
LOWERED LYMPHOCYTES = LOWERED CANCER SURVIVAL
If you want to fight cancer levels should be around 2.4 - 2.6 x 10*9/L.
If you are below those absolute levels, take your own action.
We tell you about what works, including the research, here ....
Go to: Using Herbs to boost your immune system
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References
1. Lymphocyte - Wikipedia
2. Lymphocytes - Cleveland Clinic
3. What level of lymphocytes is considered dangeros - MD Anderson
4. "Leukocyte development, kinetics, and functions". In Keohane, Elaine M.; Otto, Catherine N.; Walenga, Jeanine N. (eds.). Rodak's Hematology: Clinical Principles and Applications (6th ed.). St. Louis, Missouri: Elsevier. pp. 117–135.
5. ONEDAYTESTS - https://onedaytests.com/pages/lymphocytes-lym-description-and-reference-ranges
6. Lymphocyte depletion and repopulation after chemotherapy for primary breast cancer; Verma, R., Foster, R.E., Horgan, K. et al. Breast Cancer Res 18, 10 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13058-015-0669-x
7. Lymphocyte response and recovery to radiation therapy alone; Gregory P. Swanson et al; Voliume 8 March 30, 2023, Annals of Blood