Abstract
This study evaluated the efficacy and safety of sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim (ST) prophylaxis after combination chemotherapy with rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine and prednisolone (R-CHOP) for the treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. We retrospectively analyzed the incidence of fever in 63 lymphoma patients that received R-CHOP chemotherapy from October 2009 to November 2011. Thirty-five patients received ST prophylaxis (ST group). Twenty-eight patients received no prophylaxis (control group). Fifteen patients of the ST group and 19 patients of the control group experienced fever. The incidence of fever was lower in patients receiving ST. Two patients were diagnosed with pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia (PJP) in the control group. There were no PJP patients in the ST group. There was no statistical significant difference in sex, age, pathology type, clinical stage and complications between the ST group and control group. Age, complications, grade 4 neutropenia, clinical stage Ⅳ and antifungal agent did not increase the fever risk. And there was no statistical significant difference of ST and antifungal agent in the multivariate analysis. For the odds ratio respectively, ST was 0.36, and antifungal agent was 0.33. Adverse events occurred in 3 patients, 2 were skin disorders, and 1 was aspartate aminotransferase/alanine aminotransferase elevation. Death by infection did not occur. The result in this study indicates that ST prophylaxis may reduce not only PJP, but also the incidence of fever.
