THURSDAY, May 11 (HealthDay News) -- The American Society of Clinical Oncology has issued new guidelines for use of hematopoietic colony stimulating factors (CSF) for treatment of febrile neutropenia in patients undergoing chemotherapy, according to a report published online May 8 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
The 2005 Update Committee, led by Thomas J. Smith, M.D., of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, reviewed pertinent data published between 1999 and 2005 on the use of CSF and created recommendations based on survival, quality of life, toxicity reduction and cost-effectiveness.
The committee unanimously agreed that primary prophylaxis with CSF is warranted when the risk for febrile neutropenia is about 20 percent and no other equally effective, non-CSF-based therapies are available. Risk is based on patient age, medical history, disease characteristics and myelotoxicity of chemotherapy regimen.
Additional situations where CSF should be used include dose-dense and curative chemotherapy, and when patients have at-risk health conditions. "Current recommendations for the management of patients exposed to lethal doses of total body radiotherapy, but not doses high enough to lead to certain death due to injury to other organs, includes the prompt administration of CSF or pegylated G-CSF," the committee concludes.
Several researchers have received consulting fees and research funds from drug companies.
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