*Corresponding author email: rina_pahuja@yahoo.com Symbiosis Group Symbiosis www.symbiosisonline.org www.symbiosisonlinepublishing.com Febrile Neutropenia in Patients Receiving Chemotherapy; an observational study highlighting its association with haematological parameters on gender basis Javeria Ali 1 , Reena Kumari 2* , Ahsan Ali Siddiqui 3 , Maryam Nasir 4 , Samurna Sabir 5 , Shahzain Hasan 6 , Muhammad Asim Khan 7 and Adnan Anwar 8 1 House Officer, PNS Shifa Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan 2 Resident Medical Oncology, Oncology Ward, Jinnah hospital, Pakistan 3 Public Health, Specialist Family Medicine, Ministry of Health, Riyadh, Pakistan 4 Medical Officer, Paediatrics, Agha Khan University Hospital, Pakistan 5 Dow University of Health Sciences, Pakistan 6 Medical Officer, Hamdard University Hospital, Pakistan 7 Medical officer, Ziauddin Medical University, Pakistan 8 Assistant Professor, Al Tibri Medical College Karachi, Pakistan Cancer Science & Research: Open Access Open Access Research Article Abstract Objective: This study was aimed to evaluate the frequency of febrile neutropenia between genders and find out its association with haematological parameters. Methodology: This was an observational study conducted in the Oncology Department of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi Pakistan for 1 year. Data was collected using non-probability convenient sampling technique after taking informed consent from 316 patients diagnosed as having cancer on histopathology, undergoing treatment with chemotherapeutic agent and having neutropenia along with fever as a single oral temperature of >38.3 ºC. Patients who had co-morbid conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, or psychiatric illness were excluded from this study. The variables recorded were age, gender, chemotherapy protocol, number of days of chemotherapy, haemoglobin, total leukocyte count, neutrophils, monocytes, platelets and creatinine. Patients were divided into 2 groups based on gender receiving the chemotherapeutic regimen, Group 1 consisted of male and Group 2 consisted of female patients. SPSS version 20.0 was used for data analysis. Chi-square test and t-test was used to assess the association. P-value was calculated to find association. Results: The mean age of Group 1 patients was 41.90±14.90 years while that of group 2 was 42.35±13.17years. In our study, males had total leukocyte count 2076.30±1207.72 cells/cum, neutrophil count 29.91±20.68/mm3 and females had total leukocyte count 2862.36±1970.80 cells/ cum, neutrophil count 38.56±21.87/mm 3 which is significantly different among two groups (p-value<0.05).Febrile neutropenia was found to be present in 96(57.1%) of males and 70(47.3%) of female patients in our study which was not statistically significant(p-value=0.080). Conclusion: Our study showed that among male and female cancer patients on chemotherapy, more than half of males were found to have febrile neutropenia, while fewer females had febrile neutropenia. There was no significant difference in occurrence of febrile neutropenia between two genders. Keywords: Febrile Neutropenia; Genders; Received: June 13, 2018; Accepted: June 18, 2018; Published: June 22, 2018 *Corresponding author: Reena Kumari, Resident Medical Oncology, Oncology Ward, Jinnah hospital, Pakistan, E-mail: rina_pahuja@yahoo.com Introduction Febrile neutropenia’s one of the most prominent complication of cancer chemotherapy and leads to decreased efficacy of treatment due to reduction in dosage of chemotherapy. The mortality rate from febrile neutropenia remains on higher side [1]. In patients having solid tumours, the incidence of febrile neutropenia ranges from 10%-50% and is apparently ≥80% in patients having haematological malignancies [2]. The mortality associated with Febrile Neutropenia require prompt hospitalization and aggressive antimicrobial treatment [3]. In patients having Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteremia, mortality rates of 18% and 5% have been stated respectively [4]. The definition of Febrile Neutropenia according to the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) is: ‘An oral temperature of >38.5°C or two consecutive readings of >38.0°C for 2 h and an absolute neutrophil count (ANC) of <0.5 × 10 9 /l, or expected to fall <0.5 × 10 9 /l’ [5]. They are the most numerous