Neutropenia in Asian patients with solid tumours receiving chemotherapy: A retrospective case-control study

Aim: To compare the incidence of neutropenia and neutropenic sepsis in Asian versus Caucasian patients with solid tumours onintravenous chemotherapy. Methods: A retrospective case-control study comparing the incidence of neutropenia and neutropenic sepsis in Asian and Caucasian patients receiving infusional chemotherapy at our unit was performed. 15 Asian and 15 Caucasian patients receiving chemotherapy between November 2012 and June 2014 were included in the study and they were matched, where possible, for age, gender, tumour type and chemotherapy regime. The primary objective was to compare the incidence of grade 4 (≤ 0.5 cells x 10 9 /L) neutropenia and neutropenic sepsis. The secondary objective was to compare the incidence of grade 2 (≤ 1.5 cells x 10 9 /L) neutropenia and neutropenic sepsis. Results: There was no significant difference in the proportion of Asian and Caucasian patients who developed grade 4 neutropenia(33.3% vs. 20% of patients; P = .409) or neutropenic sepsis (20% vs. 6.7%; P = .283). However, there was a trend towards agreater proportion of Asian patients developing grade 2 neutropenia (66.7% vs. 33.3%; P = .068) which was associated with asignificantly greater proportion of Asian patients developing grade 2 neutropenic sepsis (40% vs. 6.7%; P = .031). Conclusion: This small-scale study suggests that Asian patients may suffer from an increased propensity towards neutropenia andneutropenic sepsis when receiving infusional chemotherapy emphasising the need for further research in this area. In particular,the role of prophylactic supportive therapy, such as G-CSF, in Asian patients needs to be determined.