Matti Aapro, MD, from the Clinique de Genolier, Genolier, Switzerland discusses research on the benefits of pegfilgrastim over filgrastim in managing chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia (FN), which he presented at the European Cancer Congress of the European Cancer Organisation (ECCO) 2017 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. He describes current guidelines stating that there is no difference between the clinical action of the granulocyte colony-stimulating factors (G-CSF) filgrastim and the long-acting pegfilgrastim if given as per label. However, he points out that in practice most health care practitioners prescribe filgrastim by the box, and therefore patients are treated for 5 days instead of the recommended 11 days. Dr Aapro explains how a single injection of long-acting pegfilgrastim given 24 hours after chemotherapy is sufficient, in addition to showing a reduction in febrile neutropenia compared to patients treated with filgrastim for 5 or 11 days). He recommends that the guidelines committee take this into account, and also asks them to consider that most patients would prefer to receive one injection rather than 11.
