Topics:
Breast Cancer • Gastrointestinal Cancers • Pediatric Oncology • Thoracic Malignancies • Medical Oncology • Liver and Pancreas Tumors • COVID-19
Should we be utilizing prophylactic G-CSF in our patients with intermediate risk of febrile neutropenia due to the COVID-19 pandemic?
Are you placing more weight on patient risk factors such as age >65 or co-morbidities?
Answer from: at Academic Institution
There are many functions of G-CSF, including repression of T-cell and NK cell function. Unless you are certain that growth factors are not modifying the immune network to the detriment of viral clearance—there is no data that growth factors help clear viral infections.
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Answer from: Medical Oncologist at Academic Institution
In what is obviously an answer without data, my approach would be to consider the use of wbc growth factor based upon the risk of the therapy being administered and its clinical setting (as we have historically done) without attempting to factor in the "risk" of another viral illness, as we have not...