Incidence and significance of Clostridium difficile in hospitalized cancer patients

The aim of the study was to assess the incidence and clinical significance of Clostridium difficile in patients in our cancer center. Over a period of seven consecutive months, 557 stools samples obtained from 156 hospitalized cancer patients (37 leukemic patients receiving oral antimicrobial prophylaxis and 119 patients from whom a stool sample was sent to the laboratory) were analyzed for the presence of Clostridium difficile. Clostridium difficile and/or its toxin was recovered from 13 (35%) of the 37 patients receiving oral antimicrobial prophylaxis, and from 15 (12%) of the other 119 patients (p less than 0.05). Isolation of Clostridium difficile was associated with diarrhoea in 13 (46%) of 28 patients but specific treatment was initiated only in 7 (25%) of the 28 patients in whom Clostridium difficile was isolated. The wide distribution of the serotypes identified in our patients does not suggest an epidemic situation in our hospital.