Risk factors for refractory febrile neutropenia in urological chemotherapy

During chemotherapy, patients are more susceptible to infectious complications as a result of bone marrow suppression, leading to neutropenia. The purpose of this study is to investigate risk factors for refractory febrile neutropenia (FN) during urological chemotherapy. Our method for suppressing FN is to use granulocyte colony-stimulating factor and prevent upper respiratory infection by masking and gargling. We studied 47 episodes of FN in 39 patients that occurred during urological chemotherapy for urothelial cancer, testicular cancer, and prostate cancer. Among our cases, there were 5 patients with refractory FN; we set risk factors for refractory FN and performed statistical analyses. The average age of the 39 patients was 60.6 years (range, 18-80 years). In 47 FN episodes, the chemotherapy regimen before the occurrence of FN included 15 (31.9 %) MVAC (methotrexate, vinblastine, adriamycin, cisplatin) for urothelial cancer, 5 (10.6 %) DE (docetaxel, estramustin) for prostate cancer, and 3 (6.4 %) TIP (paclitaxel, ifosfamide, cisplatin) for testicular cancer. The antibiotics used to treat FN included 17 (36.3 %) meropenem and 23 (49.0 %) cefepime, and the average duration of antibiotics was 4.4 days (range, 1-12). We investigated risk factors for refractory FN and showed a significant relationship between refractory FN and indwelling urinary catheter or smaller Multinational Association for Supportive Care in Cancer score by multivariate analysis. A future prospective study is needed for further evaluation for risk factors and establishing treatment protocols and guidelines for FN.