title: Multicentre, Prospective Observational Study of Pegfilgrastim Primary Prophylaxis in Patients at High Risk of Febrile Neutropenia in Poland: PROFIL Study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  PROFIL was a prospective observational study conducted to investigate physicians' evaluation of febrile neutropenia (FN) risk and reasons for giving pegfilgrastim primary prophylaxis (PP) in routine clinical practice in Poland.
  
  
  METHODS
  Adult cancer patients treated with chemotherapy (CT), assessed by investigators as having high overall FN risk, and who received pegfilgrastim in cycle 1 were enrolled between 03/2009 and 09/2010. Investigators assessed FN risk of the CT regimen, individual risk factors, and overall FN risk, and were asked to provide the most important reasons for providing pegfilgrastim PP. Investigator-assessed CT FN risk was compared with guideline classification.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Data were analysed from 1006 breast, ovarian, and lung cancer, and non-Hodgkin (NHL) and Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) patients. The most important reasons for using pegfilgrastim PP were high CT FN risk and advanced disease; these were consistent across tumour types and treatment intent. The investigators generally assessed high CT FN risk in agreement with guideline classification. Febrile neutropenia occurred in 4% of patients, most commonly in HL, NHL, and patients with advanced disease.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  High CT FN risk and advanced stage of disease were found to be the most important reasons for providing pegfilgrastim PP by physicians in Poland.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland.
authors.forename: Wojciech
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jurczak
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemotherapy, Regional Oncology Center, Lodz, Poland.
authors.forename: Ewa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kalinka-Warzocha
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Oncology, Oncology Centre, Bydgoszcz, UMK, Torun, Poland.
authors.forename: Ewa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Chmielowska
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Military Institute of Medicine, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Renata
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Duchnowska
authors.affiliation: The Maria Sklodowska-Curie Memorial Cancer Centre and Institute, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Elzbieta
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Wojciechowska-Lampka
authors.affiliation: Amgen Biotechnologia Sp.z o.o., Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Karolina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wieruszewska
keywords: GCSF; chemotherapy; febrile neutropenia; pegfilgrastim; risk category