Therapeutic strategies for chemotherapy-induced neutropenia in patients with solid tumors

Chemotherapy-induced neutropenia (CIN) is a common adverse event during treatment of cancer patients, associated with increased morbidity, mortality, health care costs and impairment of patients' quality of life which necessitate dose reductions.

A computerized systematic literature search was performed through Medline, PubMed, Google Scholar and the Cochrane Library to identify peer reviewed publications relevant to CIN, pathophysiology and epidemiology, patient risk-assessment and existing treatment approaches. Additionally, emerging issues such as alternative therapeutic options and implications in elderly care were addressed.

Although CIN represents a common adverse event in the management of patients with solid tumors, the heterogeneity in clinical practice across different settings underlines the need to improve existing tools for accurate patient classification. Moreover, the definition of the optimal implementation of out-patient treatment and the use of colony-stimulating factor as add-on treatment together with antibiotics should be further investigated in order to accumulate more solid data. Finally, physician education is required to ensure that scientific knowledge is implemented in the daily clinical practice.