Presentation, complications, and impact of concurrent malaria infection on anticancer therapy.
BACKGROUND
There is very limited data on the effects of malaria on on-going anticancer therapy.


METHODS
We performed a retrospective analysis of adult solid tumor patients who contracted malaria while on active anticancer therapy. We noted their demographic profile, clinical course and the effects of malaria infection on their on-going anticancer therapy. Analysis was done with simple percentages.


RESULTS
We analyzed 33 malarial episodes in 30 patients over 3 months. Plasmodium vivax was the most common type of infection (75%). Presenting symptoms included the typical triad of fever with chills and rigors. Malaria caused multiple complications, necessitating hospitalization in half of the patients and intensive care unit care in 1 of 8 patients. Common complications included thrombocytopenia (73%), anemia (67%), hyponatremia (66%), hepatic dysfunction (27%), and hypotension (12%). There were no deaths as a result of malaria. Malaria caused treatment delays with an average of 2.42 days per event. Plasmodium vivax caused more complications and therapy delays, average: 3.7 days per event, while non-vivax malaria caused an average of 0.5 days delay per event. There was a high level of resistance to chloroquine.


CONCLUSIONS
Malaria is a significant problem in adult solid tumor patients, leading to multiple complications and therapy delays.
Department of Medical Oncology, Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, India.
V
V
Noronha
G
G
Goyal
A
A
Joshi
S
S
Gupta
J
J
Ghosh
J
J
Bajpai
K
K
Prabhash
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000740:Anemia / Q000209:etiology; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D005334:Fever / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D008288:Malaria / Q000150:complications*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000188:drug therapy; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013921:Thrombocytopenia / Q000209:etiology; D055815:Young Adult
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents