Effect of low dose of lithium carbonate on preventing chemotherapy-induced neutropenia: A pilot study

摘要: Purpose: To evaluate the effect of lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) on chemotherapy induced neutropenia (Absolute neutrophil count< 1000/ml).Patients and methods: This prospective pilot study was conducted on all patients referred to the Oncology department from February to march 2006 and who were to receive chemotherapy. Li2CO3 was given in the dose of 300 mg Bid for seven days from the first day following chemotherapy. Patients expected to experience severe neutropenia were assigned to the study group (Li2CO3) and all other patients were randomly entered to the study and the control group. A total of twenty five patients were enrolled for this study.Results: The age range was from 15 to 69 years with the median age being 58 years. 46% of the subjects comprised of lung and breast cancer, 26% lymphomas and sarcomas and the remaining 28% having other malignancies. 18% of the patients received combination chemotherapy expected to cause severe neutropenia (more than two myelotoxic drugs), seventy percent received chemotherapy expected to cause moderate neutropenia (two myelotoxic drugs) and twelve percent received chemotherapy expected to cause mild neutropenia (one myelotoxic drug). All the patients had normal prechemotherapy complete blood picture. 73% percent had neutropenia in the second week of which 41% were from the control group and 32% percent from the study group. 30% of the patients in the control group had neutropenia extending to the third week delaying the second cycle of chemotherapy. Only one patient had neutropenia at the end of the third week in the study group. All patients in the …