Stool microbiota of patients with acute myeloid patients with neutropenia

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients are treated with repeated chemotherapy regimen inducing a profound decrease in white blood cells (neutropenia) lasting for three to four weeks. During this period, life-threatening infections are frequent, such as bloodstream bacterial infections from the gastro-intestinal tract that occur in about 30% of them. In this study, we sought to determine if the diversity of the gut microbiota, could explain that most, but not all, patients experience infections during prolonged chemotherapy-induced neutropenia.