• Liat Vidal, Mical Paul, Itsik Ben dor, Karla Soares-Weiser, and Leonard Leibovici.
• Department of Medicine E, Beilinson Campus, Rabin Medical Center, Petah Tiqva 49100. liatvidal@hotmail.com
• J. Antimicrob. Chemother. 2004 Jul 1; 54 (1): 29-37.

ContextNeutropenia is one of the grave consequences of cancer chemotherapy, and the treatment of neutropenic febrile patients with intravenous (iv) antibiotics has been shown to reduce mortality. Oral therapy could be an alternative approach for selected patients.ObjectivesTo compare the efficacy of oral antibiotics versus iv antibiotic therapy in febrile neutropenic cancer patients.Data SourcesThe Cochrane Library, the Cochrane Cancer Network Register of trials, EMBASE, LILACS and MEDLINE, databases for ongoing trials and the conference proceedings of the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC).Study SelectionRandomized controlled trials comparing oral antibiotic/s and iv antibiotic/s for the treatment of neutropenic cancer patients with fever.Data CollectionTwo reviewers independently assessed trial eligibility, methodological quality and extracted all data. Data concerning mortality, treatment failures and adverse events were drawn from included studies assuming an 'intention-to-treat' and 'per-protocol' basis for the outcome measures whenever possible. Relative risks (RR) with their 95% confidence intervals (CI) for dichotomous data were estimated.Main ResultsFifteen trials (median mortality 0, range 0%-8.8%) were included in the analyses. The mortality rate was similar comparing oral and iv antibiotic treatment (RR 0.83, 95% CI 0.49-1.41, 2224 patients). Treatment failure rates were also similar (RR 0.94, 95% CI 0.84-1.05, 15 trials). No significant heterogeneity was shown for the primary outcomes. This effect was stable in a wide range of patients. Quinolones alone or combined with other antibiotics were used with comparable results. Adverse reactions, mostly gastrointestinal, were more common with oral antibiotics.ConclusionsOral antibiotics may be safely offered to neutropenic patients with fever who are at low risk for mortality.

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