On-body injector on par with traditional injection in preventing severe neutropaenia

Pegfilgrastim on-body injectors (OBI) are as effective as traditional injection for the prevention of severe neutropaenia (SN), neutropaenic fever, and neutropaenia in breast cancer patients, reveals a study.

To assess the efficacy of OBIs in the real-world, a team of investigators retrospectively identified women with breast cancer diagnosed between June 2015 and June 2016 who were treated with cytotoxic chemotherapy and a granulocyte colony-stimulating factor from the medical records of Henry Ford Hospital.

The incidence of SN, the primary outcome, was defined as an absolute neutrophil count (ANC) ≤500. Secondary outcomes were as follows: incidence of neutropaenia (ANC ≤1,500), neutropaenic fever, and mortality. The investigators also performed a secondary analysis of the data to identify predictors of SN.

Of the 837 chemotherapy cycles analysed, 395 used OBI and 442 traditional injection. Patients in the OBI group were older, had higher baseline ANC, and were more often White.

No between-group differences were observed regarding the incidences of SN, neutropaenic fever, and neutropaenia. However, patients with a lower baseline ANC and White ethnicity were found to be at greater risk for SN.

Furthermore, the most common chemotherapy regimen used was AC (ie, doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide; 38 percent of total cycles).

“Granulocyte colony-stimulating factors are used in medical oncology for the prevention of neutropaenia,” the investigators said. “OBIs have an advantage over the traditional injection method of not requiring a second visit to the clinic, but these devices are subject to failure.”