See video from Amgen at: http://inr.mediaseed.tv/Amgen_36611/
To help raise awareness of the risks and impact of infections in cancer patients, Amgen is joining forces with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Foundation, and the Divisions of Healthcare Quality and Promotion and Cancer Prevention and Control at CDC on a three-year initiative to provide resources and educational tools to help cancer patients, their caregivers and healthcare professionals.
Survey Result Highlights:
Infections among chemotherapy patients are fairly common.
* Nearly one in four patients surveyed (24 percent) had an infection in the last 12 months while receiving chemotherapy treatment. Of these patients:
-- 61 percent had more than one infection;
-- Virtually all took at least a week to recover; 22 percent reported taking four or more weeks to recover;
-- 52 percent had to go the emergency room due to an infection;
* ID specialists report seeing an average of 36 chemotherapy patients with an infection in a typical month.
Antibiotic resistance is a growing concern.
* Nearly all ID specialists (91 percent) report being very or extremely concerned about emerging antibiotic resistance in cancer patients.
* More than half of all patients (51 percent) are extremely or very concerned about antibiotic resistance.
Physicians are concerned about the impact of infections in cancer patients.
* 87 percent of ID specialists are extremely or very concerned about the impact of infections on overall outcomes for chemotherapy patients, including overall survival and disease-free survival.
* Nearly half of cancer patients are not even aware that chemotherapy puts them at greater risk for an infection.
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05NY09-0055
SOURCE Medialink; Amgen