Efficacy and safety of empirical treatment with piperacillin/tazobactan as monotherapy in episodes of neutropenia and fever in children with cancer: systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Background: Febrile neutropenia in children with onco-hematological diseases is an important cause of morbidity and mortality and requires early and adequate empirical treatment. This systematic review was conducted to evaluate if piperacillin/ tazobactan (PTZ) monotherapy leads to a lower incidence of therapeutic failures than comparators. Material and Methods: A literature search was carried out in Embase, and MEDLINE databases using the search terms ('febrile neutropenia' OR hemato oncology OR haemato oncology OR 'immunocompromised host' OR 'immunocompromised patient' OR 'chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia') AND (piperacillin OR tazobactam OR 'piperacillin plus tazobactam' OR 'piperacillin/tazobactam' OR 'piperacillin-tazobactam' OR tazocin OR 'piperacillin-tazobactam drug combination')), Efficacy endpoint was treatment failure rate. The safety end-point was absence of any adverse effects (AE). Results: Eleven studies were included. No heterogeneity was detected (I² 0%). The risk of failure was not superior for piperacillin/tazobactan to comparators (Global RR: 0.94; IC95% 0.83 a 1.07). Rates of adverse events were similar among studies. No publication bias was detected (p 0.36). Conclusions:  This systematic review and meta-analysis showed that treating episodes of febrile neutropenia in oncology pediatric patients, the risk of failure for PTZ was not superior to comparators. Adverse events were similar to the comparators.