11. March 2010 06:14
Multicenter trial led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators may change neutropenia treatment for all childhood cancer patients
For patients like 10-year-old Sabrina Jo Spence, new research led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators meant fewer injections to combat the drop in white blood cells following her recent chemotherapy.
"Cool," Sabrina told Sheri Spunt, M.D., an associate member of the St. Jude Department of Oncology, after hearing the news and breaking into what Sabrina called her "happy dance." Sabrina is battling rhabdomyosarcoma.
Spunt is Sabrina's doctor and lead author of a study expected to transform how children like Sabrina are treated for neutropenia. Neutropenia is the dangerous drop in white blood cells that leaves cancer patients at increased risk for infections and can delay chemotherapy. The work appears in the March 10 edition of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
In a study of 44 young cancer patients, investigators reported that the drugs pegfilgrastim and filgrastim were similarly safe and effective at restoring a safe level of neutrophils following chemotherapy. But pegfilgrastim treatment required a single injection, while filgrastim involved daily injections for a week or longer. The trial was a multicenter, randomized, open-label study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the two drugs as well as how they are used and metabolized in the body.
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