Higher infection rate after 7- compared with 5-day cycle of azacitidine in patients with higher-risk myelodysplastic syndrome

Yishai Ofran*, Kalman Filanovsky, Anat Gafter-Gvili, Liat Vidal, Ariel Aviv, Moshe E. Gatt, Itay Silbershatz, Yair Herishanu, Ariela Arad, Tamar Tadmor, Najib Dally, Anatoly Nemets, Ory Rouvio, Aharon Ronson, Katrin Herzog-Tzarfati, Luiza Akria, Andrei Braester, Ilana Hellmann, Shay Yeganeh, Arnon NaglerRonit Leiba, Moshe Mittelman, Drorit Merkel

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

Introduction Azacitidine (AZA) dose reduction is a common practice in cytopenic patients. However, a correlation between AZA dose and infection complications has never been studied. Patients and Methods Higher-risk patients with myelodysplastic syndrome or acute myeloid leukemia treated with AZA in 18 Israeli hospitals between the years 2008 and 2011 were included in a former national survey. To reveal the effect of AZA dosage on infection risk we limited our analysis to the infection rate after the first AZA dose alone. We excluded subsequent cycles of AZA from the analysis, because infectious events during these cycles might be related to other cofactors such as disease response to AZA therapy. Results After the first AZA cycle, infectious events were more frequent after doses of 75 mg/m2 for 7 days than 75 mg/m2 for 5 days (36/106 [34%] and 10/67 [14.9%], respectively; P =.008), regardless of the patient's age. Of the 46 recorded infectious events, the causative pathogen was identified as bacterial in 25 (54.3%) and as viral or fungal in 2 (4.3%) and 2 (4.3%) cases, respectively. No pathogen was identified in 17 (37%) cases. Infections were significantly more prevalent among patients who presented with platelet counts < 20,000 (43.6% vs. 23.6%; P =.012) and poor risk cytogenetics (40.7% vs. 19.8%; P =.008). Conclusion Reduction of AZA dose might decrease infection rate and therefore should be considered in patients with high infection risk.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)e95-e99
JournalClinical Lymphoma, Myeloma and Leukemia
Volume15
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jun 2015

Keywords

  • Azacitidine
  • Cytogenetics
  • Dose adjustment
  • Infection
  • Myelodysplastic syndrome

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Higher infection rate after 7- compared with 5-day cycle of azacitidine in patients with higher-risk myelodysplastic syndrome'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this