Biomarker levels in children with cancer with febrile neutropenia
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Prospective study of predictive value of inflammatory biomarkers over clinical variables in children with cancer presenting with febrile neutropenia.
IRAS ID
147928
Contact name
Robert Phillips
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Children and young people with cancer are often treated with drugs to cure their cancer, but these also suppress their immune system making them open to life-threatening infections. This potential for severe infection means that if a child being treated for cancer develops a fever, they are treated by admission to hospital and delivery of intravenous antibiotics. This situation is known as ‘febrile neutropenia’. The causes of a fever are very variable, and while most episodes will not be serious, it is difficult to work out exactly who is at risk of problems occurring.
Lots of work is underway to help identify children who have a more or less serious illness to help give each child the right care and treatment for them. A number of different tests are used to help identify the severity of illness. These include blood tests for markers of infection.
Some research has been done on inflammatory proteins which have been shown to increase earlier in the illness than other markers. However, work in children with febrile neutropenia has not yet given us a clear answer, and the test may be unhelpful. More research is needed to see how accurate inflammatory biomarkers are at correctly identifying severe illness in febrile neutropenia.
This study is looking at the levels in children admitted to Leeds Children’s Hospital febrile neutropenia. This involves taking an extra blood sample at the same time as the other blood samples during the time your child is admitted and being treated for febrile neutropenia. This will be stored, and later analysed to see levels of the biomarkers could predict how severe the episode was. This will contribute to the research already available to help us tell if biomarkers tests should be routinely used in children’s care when they are admitted with febrile neutropenia.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/YH/0357
Date of REC Opinion
21 Aug 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion