neutropenia over view

PURPOSE: Treatment of antibiotic-resistant Gram-positive infections (GPIs), including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is becoming increasingly difficult, particularly in patients with multiple co-morbidities who require antibiotics with greater safety and a consistent pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) profile. Such difficult-to-treat GPIs are often associated with poor outcomes, extended hospital stay and increased expenditure. This can be partly attributed to the limited safety and aberrant PK/PD profile of existing anti-MRSA antibiotics...

Clozapine is an atypical antipsychotic used for the treatment of resistant schizophrenia, exhibiting significant advantages over other antipsychotic agents. Clozapine efficacy is well established in people diagnosed with schizophrenia via reducing both positive and negative symptoms. Also, is associated with a low risk of extrapyramidal side effects compared to other antipsychotics. Despite the above, clozapine is an unpopular therapeutic option for patients not previously responded to other antipsychotics, because of adverse side effects, such as hyper-salivation and weight gain or critical side effects, i...

Febrile neutropenia is a medical emergency that complicates the clinical course and treatment of haematological malignancies, significantly enhancing the financial burden and worsening the overall outcome. This study was carried out to evaluate the efficacy of institution's current first-line antibiotic regimen for febrile neutropenia in view of recent spectrum of institution's local flora and its susceptibility pattern. 163 episodes of microbiologically documented infections in 110 adult patients were studied over a period of 1 year...

BACKGROUND: Recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (rhGM-CSF) is a glycoprotein that has been approved by the FDA for the treatment of neutropenia and leukemia in combination with chemotherapies. Recombinant hGM-CSF is produced industrially using the baker's yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, by large-scale fermentation. The methylotrophic yeast, Pichia pastoris, has emerged as an alternative host cell system due to its shorter and less immunogenic glycosylation pattern together with higher cell density growth and higher secreted protein yield than S...

BACKGROUND: Deletion of chromosome 17p (del[17p]) in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia confers very poor prognosis when treated with standard chemo-immunotherapy. Venetoclax is an oral small-molecule BCL2 inhibitor that induces chronic lymphocytic leukaemia cell apoptosis. In a previous first-in-human study of venetoclax, 77% of patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukaemia achieved an overall response. Here we aimed to assess the activity and safety of venetoclax monotherapy in patients with relapsed or refractory del(17p) chronic lymphocytic leukaemia...

The efficacy and safety of nanoparticle albumin-bound paclitaxel(nab-paclitaxel)administered every 3 weeks for unresectable or recurrent gastric cancer was evaluated retrospectively. Nab-paclitaxel was intravenously administered at 260 mg/ m² on day 1 of each 21-day course without anti-allergic premedication until disease progression or discontinuation. Nine patients received nab-paclitaxel. The overall response rate was 11.1%, and the disease control rate was 55.6%. Grade 3/4 toxicities included neutropenia(44...

OBJECTIVE: The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the safety and tolerability of carboplatin plus pemetrexed for elderly patients (≥75 years) with chemotherapy-naïve advanced non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer. METHODS: Patients received escalated doses of carboplatin at an area under the concentration-time curve of 4 (Level 1) or 5 (Level 2) plus pemetrexed (500 mg/m(2)) every 3 weeks for a maximum of six cycles. Dose escalation was decided according to whether dose-limiting toxicity occurred in the first cycle of chemotherapy...

This multicenter, open-label phase II study was conducted to evaluate sunitinib monotherapy in patients with either metastatic or locoregionally recurrent advanced breast cancer. Patients received sunitinib 37.5 mg on a continuous daily dosing schedule. The primary endpoint was objective response rate (ORR); the predefined target ORR was 25 %. All 83 patients enrolled into the study received study treatment. The majority of patients (90 %) had metastatic disease; 92 % had received prior systemic therapies, and 60 % had received two or more regimens for early and/or advanced disease...

OBJECTIVES: Lyme borreliosis (LB) is the most common human tick-borne infection in Europe and the USA. In this study we set out to analyse the outcome of patients treated for Lyme disease via outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy (OPAT) and the appropriateness of this treatment using current guidelines. METHODS: This was a retrospective review of all patients with suspected LB managed via OPAT in Glasgow in 2000-11. RESULTS: Of 72 patients treated for suspected LB, 35 patients (49%) were treated in accordance with guidelines and 36 (50%) were treated with no specific guidelines...

Childhood cancers are treated with myelotoxic chemotherapy. Resultant neutropenia can lead to life-threatening infections. There is no consistent guidance on infection control precautions for neutropenic patients who are not yet febrile or infected. Although it is not possible to eradicate infection risk, it is conceivable that the risk could be reduced by effective infection prevention. This study compared infection control measures advised to pediatric and adolescent oncology patients receiving chemotherapy in 2 centers (Cape Town, South Africa, and Newcastle, UK)...

Chemotherapy with taxanes has recently become part of the treatment for many advanced neoplastic diseases, specially breast and lung cancer. Their main noncutaneous adverse reactions include neutropenia and mucositis, which eventually lead to drug discontinuation. Cutaneous adverse reactions are frequent and significantly interfere with the patient's quality of life. Treatments are poorly effective, but special recommendations may improve symptoms and prevent relapses requiring drug rechallenge.

INTRODUCTION: Clozapine, a poorly tolerated antipsychotic drug, is widely recognized as the only efficacious option in treatment-resistant psychosis. The United Kingdom (U.K.) National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidance for its consideration defined a threshold for treatment resistance substantially more liberal than that utilized in seminal studies of efficacy. This study documented adherence to NICE guidance in a patient group likely to be enriched for treatment resistance: 150 consecutive assertive outreach and former rehabilitation inpatients...

BACKGROUND: This is an updated version of the original review published in Issue 4, 2004. The use of concurrent chemotherapy and radiotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) might be seen as a way of increasing the effectiveness of radical radiotherapy at the same time as reducing the risks of metastatic disease. OBJECTIVES: To determine the effectiveness of concurrent chemoradiotherapy as compared to radiotherapy alone with regard to overall survival, tumour control and treatment-related morbidity...

Excessive vancomycin usage has contributed to the emergence of vancomycin-resistant enterococci, and a high vancomycin minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) >1.0 microg/mL has been associated with poor outcome in patients with meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection. In view of these limitations, there is a need for an alternative agent. We evaluated the clinical efficacy and safety of daptomycin given as an alternative agent in the treatment of Gram-positive catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBSIs) in cancer patients...

PURPOSE: In this phase II study, the efficacy and safety of weekly paclitaxel concomitant with cisplatin and thoracic radiotherapy (TRT) was evaluated in patients with locally-advanced unresectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients with stage III NSCLC (without pleural effusion or cervical lymphadenopathy) received TRT (63 Gy in 35 fractions over 7 weeks) with concurrent weekly cisplatin 20 mg/m(2) and paclitaxel 40 mg/m(2)/week infused over 3 hours...

Hairy cell leukemia (HCL) is a rare, chronic, B-cell, lymphoproliferative disorder. Treatment has been revolutionized by the advent of interferon (IFN)-alpha and purine analogs (PA). First-line therapy with PA yields complete response rates of 75-100%, with many long-lasting remissions. In the event of profound neutropenia and/or infectious complications, a short sequence of IFN-alpha may precede PA treatment. Because of the excellent results achieved with PA therapy, the potential role of rituximab (an anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody that is highly effective against most B-cell lymphomas) in HCL has yet to be elucidated...

BACKGROUND: We aimed to compare chest low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) with chest radiography (CXR) in the assessment of febrile acute myeloid leukaemia neutropenic patients. METHODS: A prospective non-randomized study was carried out between 30 May, 2003 and 3 June, 2004 in consecutive neutropenic patients who required imaging of the thorax and were treated for acute myeloid leukaemia. Each patient had a baseline 2-view chest radiograph followed by LDCT. Both the CXR and the LDCT studies were blindly and independently reviewed by two chest radiologists...

BACKGROUND: In view of the recent trend toward monotherapy in the treatment of febrile neutropenia, we evaluated the clinical efficacy and safety of imipenem-cilastatin versus piperacillin-tazobactam as an empiric therapy for febrile neutropenia in children with malignant diseases. METHODS: Febrile neutropenic patients received either imipenem-cilastatin or piperacillin-tazobactam randomly. Improvement without any changes in the initial antibiotic treatment was defined as "success" and improvement with modification of the initial treatment and death was defined as "failure"...

OBJECTIVE: Nursing in 'live islands' and routine high dose intravenous immunoglobulins after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation were abandoned by many teams in view of limited evidence and high costs. METHODS: This retrospective single-center study examines the impact of change from nursing in 'live islands' to care in single rooms (SR) and from high dose to targeted intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIG) on mortality and infection rate of adult patients receiving an allogeneic stem cell or bone marrow transplantation in two steps and three time cohorts (1993-1997, 1997-2000, 2000-2003)...

BACKGROUND: Since the late 1990s there has been increasing demand for donated granulocyte transfusions to treat or prevent severe infections in patients who lack their own functional granulocytes. Other than in neonates, no systematic reviews have been performed for over 10 years relating to the efficacy of prophylactic granulocyte transfusions. OBJECTIVES: To determine the effectiveness and safety of granulocyte transfusions compared with a control population not receiving this intervention for preventing mortality due to infection or due to any other cause in patients with neutropenia or disorders of neutrophil function...