Characteristics of, and risk factors for, infections in patients with cancer treated with dasatinib and a brief review of other complications.

Dasatinib has transformed the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia, resulting in durable remissions and prolonged survival. The spectrum of infectious complications during and after dasatinib therapy is not known. Retrospective analysis of records among 69 patients treated with dasatinib showed that 35 (51%) developed 57 episodes of infection. Twenty-nine (51%) episodes occurred during neutropenia, and 25 (44%) were microbiologically confirmed. Compared with patients who did not develop infection with dasatinib therapy, patients with infection were significantly more likely to have acute lymphocytic leukemia (51% vs. 18%; p ≤ 0.005) and to have received high-dose corticosteroids (51% vs. 26%; p ≤ 0.05). Patients with infection were also more likely to have received dasatinib with another antineoplastic agent (57% vs. 35% without infection; p = 0.09). On multivariate analysis, treatment with three or more cycles of dasatinib increased the risk of infection (odds ratio 11.7; 95% confidence interval 2.5-54.3; p = 0.002). The presence of comorbidities tended to increase the risk of infection (odds ratio 3.9; 95% confidence interval 0.9-17.9; p = 0.07). Interestingly, viral infections, including a single case of cytomegalovirus colitis, were uncommon (7%). The rate of death in 57 patients during follow-up was non-significantly higher in patients with infection versus those without infection (35% vs. 18%; p = 0.18). Infection-associated deaths were noted in only two patients (10%) who had an infection and died. The results of our analysis suggest that antibacterial prophylaxis is important in patients who develop neutropenia during dasatinib therapy, although routine antifungal and anti-cytomegalovirus prophylaxis may not be necessary.