THURSDAY, Sept. 8 (HealthDay News) -- The use of the antibiotic levofloxacin as a prophylactic during chemotherapy reduces the likelihood of fever, bacterial infections and resulting hospitalization, according to two new studies in the Sept. 8 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.
Giampaolo Bucaneve of the Policlinico Monteluce in Perugia, Italy, and colleagues studied 760 cancer patients expected to develop chemotherapy-induced neutropenia for more than seven days. Half of the patients received 500 mg of levofloxacin daily and half received a placebo. In the antibiotic group, 65% of patients developed fever, compared to 85% in the placebo group. Those in the levofloxacin group had a 17% drop in microbial infections and 16% fewer bacteremias. The antibiotic was equally effective in patients with leukemia and those with solid tumors or lymphoma.
In the second study, Michael Cullen of the University Hospital Birmingham Cancer Centre in Birmingham, UK, and colleagues looked at 1,565 patients receiving chemotherapy for solid tumors or lymphoma. Half the patients received 500 mg of levofloxacin while the other half received a placebo. In the levofloxacin group, 3.5% of patients had a febrile episode during the first chemotherapy cycle, compared to 7.9% of the placebo group. Over the entire course of chemotherapy, 10.8% of the levofloxacin group had one or more febrile episodes, but the rate for the placebo group was 15.2%. The rate of hospitalization as a result of infection was 15.7% for the levofloxacin group and 21.6% for the placebo group.
Both studies conclude that for cancer patients at high risk of developing neutropenia as a result of chemotherapy, levofloxacin can play a useful role in reducing the incidence of infections.
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