What are adjuvant chemotherapy and neutropenia?
Adjuvant chemotherapy is a method of treating cancer using drugs to prolong life and prevent recurrence (return) of cancer. For breast cancer patients, adjuvant chemotherapy is given after surgical removal of the tumour to increase the chances that any remaining, non-visible cancer cells are killed. This increases the chances of cure but can have significant side effects. Chemotherapeutic drugs can, in addition to destroying cancerous cells, suppress bone marrow function by killing white blood cells, which are fast growing. As a result, patients may become more susceptible to infection (and fevers). A low white blood cell count is called “neutropenia.” If accompanied by a fever, it is called “febrile neutropenia,” and can be a sign of an underlying infection. This indicator measures how many breast cancer patients needed to visit the emergency department at least once for care and/or needed to be admitted to hospital, within 4 weeks of receiving one of the newer chemotherapy regimens o
