WHERE CAN I READ MORE ON CD4 COUNT DECLINE AFTER RADIATION TREATMENT ESPECIALLY TO PROSTATE CANCER? I DID NOTICE THE DROP IN MY CD4 CELL COUNT. YOU MENTIONED THAT THEY SHOULD COME BACK UP. HOW LONG BEFORE THE COUNTS ARE EXPECTED TO RISE? IS IT SOMETHING I SHOULD BE WORRIED ABOUT?

CD4 counts do indeed tend to go down during radiation or chemotherapy treatments. In time they will rise but often not to the original baseline. The younger the patient is, the more rapid the rise in the CD4 cells will be. If often takes a year or so to see the CD4 rise. In the New England Journal of Medicine, there was an article which looked at the fall and then rise of CD4 cells as a result of chemotherapy. In that study, all the patients were HIV negative. Although the data from that article do not apply directly to your case, the article did make the points which I mention above (i.e. that in time your CD4 cells should rise).