Authors: Gilles Freyer Ewa KalinkaWarzocha Konstantinos Syrigos Mihai Marinca Giuseppe Tonini Say Liang Ng Zee Wan Wong Antonio Salar Guenther Steger Mahmoud Abdelsalam Lucy DeCosta Zsolt Szabo
Publish Date: 2015/08/28
Volume: 32, Issue: 10, Pages: 236-
Abstract
Febrile neutropenia FN is a potentially fatal complication of chemotherapy This prospective observational study describes physicians’ approaches toward assessing FN risk in patients receiving chemotherapy regimens with an intermediate 10–20 FN risk In the baseline investigator assessment physicians selected factors considered important when assessing overall FN risk and deciding on granulocyte colonystimulating factor GCSF primary prophylaxis PP Physicians then completed patient assessments using the same lists of factors The final FN risk scores and whether GCSF PP was planned were reported The final analysis included 165 physicians and 944 patients The most frequently considered factor in both assessments was chemotherapy agents in the backbone 88 of investigator and 93 of patient assessments History of FN 83 baseline laboratory values 76 and age 73 were commonly selected at baseline whereas tumor type 72 guidelines 62 and tumor stage 43 were selected most during patient assessments Median investigatorreported FN risk threshold for GCSF PP was 20 range 10–85 GCSF PP was planned in 82 of patients with an FN risk at or above this threshold therefore almost onefifth of qualifying patients would not receive GCSF PP Physicians generally follow guidelines but also consider individual patient characteristics when assessing FN risk and deciding on GCSF PP A standardized FN risk assessment may optimize the use of GCSF PP which may minimize the incidence of FN in patients undergoing chemotherapy with an intermediate FN risk ClinicalTrialsgov Identifier NCT01813721This study was sponsored by Amgen We thank all patients physicians coordinators and other staff who participated in the study Medical writing support was provided by Elizabeth Hartfield PhD from Oxford PharmaGenesis Oxford UK Funding for this support was provided by Amgen Europe GmbHGilles Freyer Giuseppe Tonini Konstantinos Syrigos Zee Wan Wong Say Liang Ng and Antonio Salar have declared no conflicts of interest Ewa KalinkaWarzocha has received honoraria from Amgen and Teva Mihai Marinca has received honoraria from Amgen and Sandoz Guenther Steger has received honoraria from and has participated in advisory board meetings for Amgen and Teva Mahmood Abdelsalam has received consultancy fees from Sanofi and honoraria from Eli Lilly and Johnson Johnson He has also received travel grants from Amgen Roche and Astellas and has participated in advisory board meetings for Amgen Janssen and Innomar Strategies Lucy DeCosta and Zsolt Szabo are employees and shareholders of Amgen
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