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With unexplained fevers, neutropenia and a family history, my suspicion that I might have cancer was fairly high.

In someone who is otherwise healthy, whose other types of blood are fine, this kind of severe drop in neutrophils — what’s known medically as neutropenia — is usually caused by a medication.

The CDC offers a site for cancer patients, caregivers and health-care providers about infections and neutropenia.

On four or five occasions I was admitted to hospital with neutropenia, a low white blood cell count.

The FDA also said that death due to sepsis -- a severe inflammatory response triggered by infection -- following neutropenia has been reported in patients taking Onivyde.