Incidence and characteristics of fungal infections in cancer patients

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Incidence and characteristics of Invasive Fungal Infections in patients being treated with Systemic Anticancer Therapies in England

• IRAS ID

  329733

• Contact name

  Gillian Kiely

• Contact email

  gillian.kiely@pfizer.com

• Sponsor organisation

  Pfizer UK

• Duration of Study in the UK

  3 years, 0 months, 0 days

• Research summary

  Globally it is estimated that there are 19.8 million new cancer cases annually, with approximately 10 million cancer-related deaths registered in 2020. In the same year, within the UK, over 457,000 new cases of cancer were identified with almost 180,000 associated deaths.

  The treatment of cancerous cells can result in a weakened immune system, making a patient more vulnerable to other infections and diseases; consequently, immunocompromised patients are at an increased risk of developing severe
  symptoms to common infections and an increased susceptibility to uncommon ones. It is estimated that amongst those with solid organ tumours, 50% of deaths are infection related. Clinical risk factors such as history of previous infections, comorbidities, and sociodemographic factors such as age, gender and ethnicity can result in a higher risk of infection.

  Much of previous research in this area has focused on bacterial or viral infections, however, fungal infections have gained recognition as a threat to global public health and are associated with substantial healthcare costs such as the development of antimicrobial resistance. Among fungal infections, invasive forms (e.g., candidiasis, aspergillosis, cryptococcosis, pneumocystis, histoplasmosis, fusariosis, scedosporiosis, lomentosporiosis) are associated with poorer outcomes in those who are severely ill or immunocompromised when compared to other patient populations.

  There is limited real-world evidence assessing fungal infection related morbidity and mortality amongst cancer patients. Thus, this study aims to evaluate the disease burden of invasive fungal infections amongst cancer patients, and to assess the related healthcare costs and resource use within the UK secondary healthcare system. This will be further stratified by subgroups of interest such as disease exposure, infection risk level and patient characteristics. Patients and policymakers will benefit from this study as it will enable the identification of the groups most affected by fungal infections in those with cancer.

• REC name

  West Midlands - Coventry & Warwickshire Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  23/WM/0130

• Date of REC Opinion

  12 Jun 2023

• REC opinion

  Favourable Opinion