A patient undergoes chemotherapy, leading to bone marrow suppression. Which risk increases as the patient's bone marrow cellularity decreases, resulting in aplastic anemia?

💡 Explanation

Chemotherapy-induced bone marrow suppression reduces the production of all blood cells, including white blood cells. Because these cells are crucial for fighting infections, a decrease in their numbers severely compromises the immune system, therefore opportunistic infections become highly likely, rather than increased erythropoietin, reticulocyte count, or iron absorption changes.

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