Infections of Blastocystis hominis and microsporidia in cancer patients: are they opportunistic?

Samudi Chandramathi, Kumar Suresh, Zarina Bustam Anita, Umah Rani Kuppusamy

Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 2012 Apr

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Chemotherapy can cause immunosuppression, which may trigger latent intestinal parasitic infections in stools to emerge. This study investigated whether intestinal parasites can emerge as opportunistic infections in breast and colorectal cancer patients (n=46 and n=15, respectively) undergoing chemotherapy treatment. Breast cancer patients were receiving a 5-fluorouracil/epirubicin/cyclophosphamide (FEC) regimen (6 chemotherapy cycles), and colorectal cancer patients were receiving either an oxaliplatin/5-fluorouracil/folinic acid (FOLFOX) regimen (12 cycles) or a 5-fluorouracil/folinic acid (Mayo) regimen (6 cycles). Patients had Blastocystis hominis and microsporidia infections that were only present during the intermediate chemotherapy cycles. Thus, cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy should be screened repeatedly for intestinal parasites, namely B. hominis and microsporidia, as they may reduce the efficacy of chemotherapy treatments. Copyright Â© 2012 Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Citation

Samudi Chandramathi, Kumar Suresh, Zarina Bustam Anita, Umah Rani Kuppusamy. Infections of Blastocystis hominis and microsporidia in cancer patients: are they opportunistic? Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. 2012 Apr;106(4):267-9