Webrelease

13/08/07

 

New guidelines for preventing and treating infectious diseases in leukemic patients will help reduce morbidity and mortality

 

European Guidelines on Antimicrobial Therapy in Patients with Acute Leukemia, covering prophylaxis and treatment of bacterial and fungal infections, have been published today in a Supplement to The European Journal of Cancer.1

 

The series of articles published in the EJC Supplement presents the results of the First European Conference on Infections in Leukemia (ECIL-1).

 

‘In developing our recommendations at a consensus conference we addressed an urgent need to establish state-of-the-art European standards on prophylaxis and treatment of infectious complications occurring in patients with acute leukaemia and recipients of haematological stem cell transplantations,’ said Professor Catherine Cordonnier, Centre Hôpital-Universitaire Henri Mondor, Créteil, France. ‘Publication of our recommendations will help clinicians choose the best treatment for their leukemic patients and thereby should reduce morbidity and mortality.’

 

ECIL-1 was a joint initiative of four organisations:

 

In developing the guidelines, six working groups reviewed data from the literature to answer specific questions on the prevention and treatment of bacterial and invasive fungal infections, which are major causes of morbidity and mortality in leukemic patients. The working groups mainly considered data from large prospective trials and meta-analyses and their conclusions were presented and debated at the ECIL-1 conference by an expert panel of 59 infectious diseases specialists, microbiologists, clinical trial specialists or haematologists from 24 European countries, Israel and Australia.

 

After consensus was reached, the guidelines were finalised, each proposal being scored according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) grading for the level of evidence and level of recommendation before being published. 

 

ECIL-1 addressed six topics, three relating to bacterial infections and three relating to fungal infections:

 

Special attention was paid to developing evidence-based recommendations, identifying risk populations, and focusing on infection-related mortality and risk-benefit ratio.

                                                       

‘The newly published guidelines provide clinicians with information that will help them prevent and treat life-threatening bacterial and invasive fungal infections in their leukemic patients,’ concluded Professor Thierry Calandra, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Lausanne, Switzerland. ‘The recommendations will be extended to include viral infections at ECIL-2 in September 2007.’

 

Reference

1. C. Cordonnier, T. Calandra, F. Meunier. Guidelines from the First European Conference on Infections in Leukaemia: ECIL1. EJC Supplements 2007;5(2):1-60. EJC website

 

Notes to editors

The 1st European Conference on Infections in Leukemia (ECIL-1) was held in Juan-les-Pins, France, from 30 September - 1 October 2005.

 

The ECIL organisation committee members were:

 

The six working groups were:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Media contact:                                                    ECIL-1 contact:

Colin Martin                                                             Professor Catherine Cordonnier

Ritz Communications                                         carlcord@club-internet.fr

Tel:        +44 20 8994 1639

Mob:     +44 7931 560 141

colin.martin@ritzcommunications.com