A practical approach to febrile cancer patients: Diagnostic stewardship in Oncology units

INTRODUCTION: Cancer and cytotoxic chemotherapy used for its treatment predispose to severe and often fatal infections. Prompt diagnosis and timely antibiotic therapy is crucial, with delays in initiating therapy having high mortality. Complete blood counts (CBC) are an inexpensive, standardized, preliminary investigation for management and follow-up of cancer patients with diagnostic and prognostic value.
METHOD: To study the types of infections associated with various cancers on chemotherapy, their etiologies and susceptibility patterns, and the hematological profile of these patients as predictors of infection.
RESULTS: A total of 21 patients (12 solid and 9 hematological malignancies) presented with 31 febrile episodes. WBC count (2079 cells/cu.mm), percentage of neutrophils (52.9%), absolute neutrophil (137.5 cells/cu.mm) and platelet counts (1,77,507 cells/cu.mm) were significantly lower in the 11 febrile neutropenic patients. Absolute lymphocyte count (412.7 cells/cu.mm) was redu..., , , GENERAL INFORMATION

1. Title of Dataset: A practical approach to febrile cancer patients: Diagnostic stewardship in Oncology units
2. Author Information:Authors:
Sridevi H.B., Anisha Maria Fernandes, Sanyo D'souza, Prashantha B., Pooja Rao, Suchitra Shenoy M.
3. Duration of data collection (single date, range, approximate date):12 months (Aug 2021- July 2022)
4. Geographic location of data collection: Mangalore, Karnataka, India
5. Information about funding sources that supported the collection of the data: Nil

SHARING/ACCESS INFORMATION

1. Licenses/restrictions placed on the data: Nil
2. Links to publications that cite or use the data: Nil
3. Links to other publicly accessible locations of the data: Nil
4. Links/relationships to ancillary data sets: Nil
5. Was data derived from another source? no
A. If yes, list source(s):
6. Recommended citation for this dataset: H.B., Sridevi et al. (2024). A practical approach to febrile cancer patients: Diagnostic stewardship in Oncology...