Background: The aim of the study was to elaborate a predictive model for the duration of chemotherapy-induced neutropenia (CIN) allowing the identification of patients with a higher risk of complications, especially complicated febrile neutropenia, who might benefit from preventive measures.
Patients and methods: A score ranging from 0 to 4 on the basis of expected CIN was attributed to each cytotoxic agent given as part of chemotherapy treatment in solid tumours for patients with febrile neutropenia (FN). The individual scores were combined into several overall scores.
Results: A total of 203 patients with FN were eligible for this retrospective analysis. We were able to identify two groups of patients with statistically different neutropenia durations with median durations until hematological recovery of ANC > or =0.5 and > or =1.0 x 10(9)/l, being respectively 6 versus 4 days (P = 0.03) and 8 versus 6 days (P = 0.01).
Conclusions: The duration of neutropenia is directly influenced by the aggressiveness of the chemotherapy regimen. In this retrospective study, we were able to identify a group of patients who needed two more additional days to recover from grade 3 and grade 4 neutropenia, based on the degree of aggressiveness of the cytotoxic agents used.