Resource implications of febrile neutropenia in cancer patients - An international collaborative study

No previous study has compared countries with respect to differences in cli nical practice and resource use of cancer patients with febrile neutropenic episodes (FNE). The purpose of this international, cross-sectional pilot s tudy conducted in tertiary care centers across Europe, Brazil and Australia was to evaluate the resource use attributable to febrile neutropenia in di fferent countries. A total of 17 centers from eight countries provided 128 patients. The leading malignant disorders were hematological malignancies ( n = 47), lymphomas (n = 27), and breast cancer (n = 26). The median length of duration of FNE was 4 days (interquartile range, 3-8). The incidence den sity of antimicrobial exposure was 4.691 days of antimicrobial therapy per 1,000 days of FNE. There were 23 patients who received a total of 280 days of G-CSF therapy. On average, 5 (+/- 5.4) blood samples per patient were dr awn and cultured. The most common diagnostic radiographic test was the ches t X-ray, with a total of 224 such examinations performed in 82 patients. We conducted an international cross-sectional study on resource implications of febrile neutropenia in cancer patients. The records of the febrile neutr openic patients included in this study reflect clinical practice in a heter ogeneous, international patient population, treated with modern supportive care and early empiric antibiotics by clinicians at different levels of exp ertise.