Ventilator-associated pneumonia and bloodstream infections in intensive care unit cancer patients: a retrospective 12-year study on 3388 prospectively monitored patients

PURPOSE: Some publications suggest high rates of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and of nosocomial pneumonia portending a poor prognosis in ICU cancer patients. A better understanding of the epidemiology of HAIs in these patients is needed. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of all the patients hospitalized for ≥ 48 h during a 12-year period in the 12-bed ICU of the Gustave Roussy hospital, monitored prospectively for ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) and bloodstream infection (BSI) and for use of medical devices. RESULTS: During 3388 first stays in the ICU, 198 cases of VAP and 103 primary, 213 secondary, and 77 catheter-related BSIs were recorded. The VAP rate was 24.5/1000 ventilator days (95% confidence interval [CI] 21.2–28.0); the catheter-related BSI rate was 2.3/1000 catheter days (95% CI 1.8–2.8). The cumulative incidence during the first 25 days of exposure was 58.8% (95% CI 49.1–66.6%) for VAP, 8.9% (95% CI, 6.2–11.5%) for primary, 15.1% (95% CI 11.6–18.5%) for secondary and 5.0% (95% CI 3.2–6.8%) for catheter-related BSIs. VAP or BSIs were not associated with a higher risk of ICU mortality. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to report HAI rates in a large cohort of critically ill cancer patients. Although both the incidence of VAP and the rate of BSI are higher than in general ICU populations, this does not impact patient outcomes. The occurrence of device-associated infections is essentially due to severe medical conditions in patients and to the characteristics of malignancy. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s00520-019-04800-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.