Antibiotics cut infection in chemo patients
Infections are a serious problem for patients undergoing chemotherapy for cancer. A recent study suggests that treatment with quinolone antibiotics dramatically reduces the occurrence of some types of infections common to chemo therapy patients.1
Patients receiving oral quinolone antibiotics had roughly 50% fewer infections overall than chemotherapy patients not receiving antibiotics. However, many patients on quinolone antibiotic treatment still developed fevers and had to receive intravenous antibiotics. Furthermore, oral antibiotics had no effect on mortality.
Researchers performed meta-analysis of 18 clinical trials involving 1,408 cancer patients who were undergoing chemotherapy. Compared with patients who received no oral antibiotics, patients who received quinolones experienced 79% fewer gram-negative infections and 77% fewer gram-positive infections. The reduction in gram-negative infections translated into 46% fewer total infections in patients taking antibiotics than in patients not taking quinolone antibiotics. Researchers found similar results in clinical trials that used trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole as the control regimen.
Because quinolones eliminate some normal bacterial flora, oncologists have been concerned that they could predispose cancer patients to infections with other bacteria. However, researchers found that the incidence of quinolone-resistant infections was no higher in the quinolone group than in the control group.
Reference
1. Engels EA, Lau J, Barza M. Efficacy of quinolone prophylaxis in neutropenic cancer patients: A meta-analysis. J Clin Oncol 1998; 16:1,179-1,187.
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