INCIDENCE OF NEUTROPENIA DURING CHEMOTHERAPY TREATMENT IN BREAST CANCER PATIENTS AT ADVANCED MEDICAL AND DENTAL INSTITUTE (AMDI), UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA, PENANG, MALAYSIA
Abstract
ABSTRACT
Background: Neutropenia caused by chemotherapy treatment can frequently lead to severe infection and sometimes life-threatening. It may result in dose reductions, delays or discontinuation of chemotherapy which may subsequently compromise patient outcomes. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence of neutropenia during chemotherapy treatment in breast cancer patients.
Materials and Methods: This was a single-centre, retrospective study conducted in the Advanced Medical and Dental Institute (AMDI), Penang. All breast cancer patients who received chemotherapy treatment from January 2014 to December 2016 were included into the study. Ethical approval was granted by the JEPeM USM.
Result: 155 patients were analysed in this study, with the mean (SD) age of 52.19 (9.46) years. In total, 85 patients (54.8%) manifested neutropenia and sub-categorisation of neutropenia based on severity, showed mild neutropenia (25.8%), moderate neutropenia (12.9%), severe neutropenia (9.0%) and febrile neutropenia (7.1%). Descriptive analysis showed that majority of patients in this study were aged 40 – 59 years (62.6%), overweight (67.1%), postmenopause (60.6%), no family history of breast cancer (85.8%), ductal pathology subtype (94.8%), receptor subtype of Estrogen Receptor or Progesterone Receptor Positive (43.4%), late cancer stage (58.4%), underwent mastectomy surgery (79.3%), received Anthracycline-Taxane Chemotherapy Regimens (66.5%) and received Granulocyte-Colony Stimulating Factor (G-CSF) treatment (67.1%). All breast cancer patients were female in this study.
Conclusion: The incidence of neutropenia in this study centre was 54.8% and was comparable with some of the studies. However, due to different study design of each study, it is quite hard to compare the incidence of neutropenia among all the centres.
Keywords: Neutropenia, breast cancer patients, chemotherapy