Incidence and outcomes of secondary infections in septic patients with cancer

Abstract

Secondary infections, also called intensive care unit (ICU)-acquired infections, are defi ned as infections occurring 48 h after admission to the ICU. [1] Critically ill patients are at a high risk of developing ventilatorassociated pneumonia (VAP) and bloodstream infections (BSIs), which are associated with increased ICU mortality. [2] Cancer patients are susceptible to infections owing to multiple risk factors due to immunosuppression, including radiotherapy, systemic therapy, and immunotherapy. [3,4] Hence, critically ill cancer patients with sepsis are also prone to developing secondary infections. In this study, we hypothesized that critically ill cancer patients with sepsis would develop more secondary infections, which would be associated with adverse outcomes.