Advertisement

Cancer treatments and tumours can weaken a cancer patient's immune system, making it more difficult to fight infections.

Severe sepsis leads to cancer deaths
The study found hospitalised cancer patients with severe sepsis were more than five times (37.8 percent) as likely to die than cancer patients who did not have severe sepsis (7.2 percent). Cancer patients with lymphoma, leukaemia or other blood cancers were more susceptible to severe sepsis than patients with solid organ cancer.

"Our study demonstrates the devastating complication of severe infections in cancer patients. Improvement to infection control, such as early appropriate antibiotics, in this population could have a significant impact on overall cancer survival," Dr Mark Williams, of Eli Lilly & Co., said in a prepared statement.

The annual hospital costs for treating cancer patients with severe sepsis is about $3 billion, the study said. (HealthDayNews)

Read more:
Sepsis vaccine offers hope
Cancer Centre

 

Print this article on

Rate this article Poor 1 2 3 4 5 Excellent