The safety and feasibility of oral fluoroquinolone monotherapy in patients with low-risk febrile neutropenia (FN) were demonstrated in recent studies. Levofloxacin (LVFX) is a commonly prescribed antibiotic; however, evidence for its efficacy against FN is limited. Therefore, in this study, we retrospectively investigated the efficacy of LVFX against low-risk FN in patients with malignant lymphoma at our institution. Treatment success was defined as recovery from fever and neutropenia without alteration of the initial regimen. We recruited 29 patients between January 2013 and December 2018. The median age of the cohort was 64 (range: 21-87) years; 13 (44.8%) were aged over 65 years. In total, 22 patients had diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Therapy was successful in 24 (82.8%) patients, whereas 5 had treatment failure requiring a change from LVFX to intravenous broad-spectrum antibacterial agents. No deaths related to FN were observed. Two patients required FN-related chemotherapy dose reduction in subsequent cycles. Although this cohort comprised many elderly patients, our study confirmed the efficacy of LVFX in patients with low-risk FN. This may improve the treatment of low-risk FN and malignant lymphoma.
Keywords: CHOP; febrile neutropenia; levofloxacin; malignant lymphoma.