Supportive care for viral infections in cancer patients

Viral infections are more frequent and more severe in patients with cancer. As treatments for malignancy become ever more aggressive, the supportive care must also advance or the gains from innovative antineoplastic treatments will be lost to morbidity and mortality from secondary immune suppression and opportunistic infections. While empiric antibacterial and antifungal therapies for neutropenic leukemia patients were improving patients' survival, viral infections in cancer patients were often relegated to a clinical footnote in review articles since little could be done about them. Recently, however, acyclovir, ganciclovir, immunoglobulins, and ribavirin have given new opportunities for successful management of severe viral opportunistic infections in patients with leukemia and in bone marrow and other transplant patients.