Kivonat:
PURPOSE: An open-label, matched-pair (by diagnosis, stage of
disease, age, and gender) pilot clinical trial was conducted to
test whether the combined administration of the medical
nutriment MSC (Avemar) with cytotoxic drugs and the continued
administration of MSC on its own help to reduce the incidence of
treatment-related febrile neutropenia in children with solid
cancers compared with the same treatments without MSC. METHODS:
Between December 1998 and May 2002, 22 patients (11 pairs) were
enrolled in this study. At baseline, the staging of the tumors
was the same in each pair (mostly pTNM = T2N0M0), with the
exception of two cases in which patients in the MSC group had
worse prognoses (metastasis at baseline). There were no
significant differences in the average age of the patients, the
length of treatment time (MSC) or follow-up, the number of
patients with central venous catheters, the number of
chemotherapy cycles, the frequency of preventive
counterneutropenic interventions, or the type and dosage of
antibiotic and antipyretic therapy used in the two groups.
RESULTS: During the treatment (follow-up) period, there was no
progression of the malignant disease, whereas at end-point the
number and frequency of febrile neutropenic events significantly
differed between the two groups: 30 febrile neutropenic episodes
(24.8%) in the MSC group versus 46 (43.4%) in the control group
(Wilcoxon signed rank test, P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The
continuous supplementation of anticancer therapies with the
medical nutriment MSC helps to reduce the incidence of
treatment-related febrile neutropenia in children with solid
cancers.
