TY - JOUR
T1 - Recurrent Clostridium difficile infection is associated with treatment failure and prolonged illness in cancer patients
AU - Abu-Sbeih, Hamzah
AU - Choi, Kati
AU - Tran, Cynthia N.
AU - Wang, Xuemei
AU - Lum, Phillip
AU - Shuttlesworth, Gladis
AU - Stroehlein, John R
AU - Okhuysen, Pablo C.
AU - Wang, Yinghong
N1 - Funding Information:
Pablo C. Okhuysen reports research funding from Merck, Sharp, and Dohme. For the remaining authors, there are no conflicts of interest.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.
PY - 2019/1/1
Y1 - 2019/1/1
N2 - Background Cancer patients are susceptible to recurrent Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) that is increasing globally, necessitating new approaches to prevent fatal consequences. We examined the clinical characteristics of cancer patients with recurrent CDI (RCDI). Patients and methods A retrospective review of cancer patients with C. difficile-positive test between January 2015 and May 2017 was carried out. CDI was defined as diarrhea and toxigenic C. difficile detection in the stool by nucleic acid amplification test and enzyme immunoassay. Patients having two CDI episodes were categorized as single recurrent CDI (SRCDI), and those having three or more CDI episodes were categorized as multiple recurrent CDI (MRCDI). Treatment failure was defined as the requirement of antimicrobial alteration or repetition. Results We included 170 patients having 270 CDI episodes; 85 patients had non-RCDI, and 85 had RCDI; 14 of them had MRCDI. Previous hospitalization and immunosuppressant use were more frequent in MRCDI group than in SRCDI group (P=0.009 and 0.002, respectively). Physicians treated more SRCDI episodes than MRCDI episodes with metronidazole alone (P=0.017), whereas, more MRCDI episodes needed combination antimicrobials (P=0.072). The mean duration of CDI treatment was longer in the MRCDI group than in the SRCDI group (P=0.030). MRCDI was associated with treatment failure more than SRCDI (P=0.021). The risk for a recurrent episode of CDI was increased in patients who had the following features of the first CDI episode: previous use of antibiotic, NSAID, immunosuppressant, chemotherapy, comorbidities, CDI treatment failure, and severe CDI (P<0.05). Conclusion Risk factors for RCDI in cancer patients are similar to those without cancer, with the exception of chemotherapy that is only given to cancer patients. Long CDI treatment and CDI treatment failure are associated with MRCDI.
AB - Background Cancer patients are susceptible to recurrent Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) that is increasing globally, necessitating new approaches to prevent fatal consequences. We examined the clinical characteristics of cancer patients with recurrent CDI (RCDI). Patients and methods A retrospective review of cancer patients with C. difficile-positive test between January 2015 and May 2017 was carried out. CDI was defined as diarrhea and toxigenic C. difficile detection in the stool by nucleic acid amplification test and enzyme immunoassay. Patients having two CDI episodes were categorized as single recurrent CDI (SRCDI), and those having three or more CDI episodes were categorized as multiple recurrent CDI (MRCDI). Treatment failure was defined as the requirement of antimicrobial alteration or repetition. Results We included 170 patients having 270 CDI episodes; 85 patients had non-RCDI, and 85 had RCDI; 14 of them had MRCDI. Previous hospitalization and immunosuppressant use were more frequent in MRCDI group than in SRCDI group (P=0.009 and 0.002, respectively). Physicians treated more SRCDI episodes than MRCDI episodes with metronidazole alone (P=0.017), whereas, more MRCDI episodes needed combination antimicrobials (P=0.072). The mean duration of CDI treatment was longer in the MRCDI group than in the SRCDI group (P=0.030). MRCDI was associated with treatment failure more than SRCDI (P=0.021). The risk for a recurrent episode of CDI was increased in patients who had the following features of the first CDI episode: previous use of antibiotic, NSAID, immunosuppressant, chemotherapy, comorbidities, CDI treatment failure, and severe CDI (P<0.05). Conclusion Risk factors for RCDI in cancer patients are similar to those without cancer, with the exception of chemotherapy that is only given to cancer patients. Long CDI treatment and CDI treatment failure are associated with MRCDI.
KW - Clostridium difficile infection
KW - cancer
KW - recurrent
KW - treatment failure
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U2 - 10.1097/MEG.0000000000001288
DO - 10.1097/MEG.0000000000001288
M3 - Article
C2 - 30339561
AN - SCOPUS:85058569127
SN - 0954-691X
VL - 31
SP - 128
EP - 134
JO - European Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology
JF - European Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology
IS - 1
ER -