Myelosuppression is the major dose-limiting toxicity of chemotherapy in small cell lung cancer (SCLC). The capacity of colony stimulating factors (CSFs) to stimulate granular neutrophil recovery may be of great value to prevent or cure febrile neutropenia and to increase dose-intensity. The aim of this review was to assess the current use of CSFs in SCLC on the basis of experimental and clinica...

BACKGROUND Febrile neutropenia carries a high risk of sepsis complications, and the identification of biomarkers capable to identify high risk patients is a great challenge. Angiopoietins (Ang -) are cytokines involved in the control microvascular permeability. It is accepted that Ang-1 expression maintains endothelial barrier integrity, and that Ang-2 acts as an antagonizing cytokine with barr...

Fever is the principle sign of infection in neutropenic patient and frequently may be the only evidence of infection. The pattern of fever in neutropenia is non-specific and not pathognomonic of any type of infections or non-infectious process and can be suppressed by the antipyretic effects of drugs such as corticosteroids. Neutropenia, resulting from cytotoxic chemotherapy is the most common ...