Infectious disease specialist consultations in a Japanese cancer center: a retrospective review of 776 cases

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the impact of infectious disease (ID) consultations on the management of patients with cancer. This study aimed to describe the consultation services provided by ID specialists to all departments in a comprehensive cancer center in Japan. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective review of ID consultations with adult patients at a comprehensive cancer center in Japan from April 2017 to March 2018. RESULTS: During the study period, 776 patients with cancer had an ID consultation. Of these, 414 (53.4%) were hospital inpatients. Reasons for the ID consultation comprised clinical management (n = 481, 62.0%), immunization (n = 272, 35.1%), and infection control (n = 23, 3.0%). Of the 474 ID consultations for diagnostic purposes, the most frequent condition was fever or elevated inflammatory markers of unknown origin (n = 125, 26.4%). The most frequent diagnoses after the diagnostic ID consultation were hepatobiliary infections (n = 97, 22.4%), respiratory infections (n = 89, 20.618.8%), and intra-abdominal infections (n = 71, 16.4%). The commonest reasons for immunization consultations were to prevent seasonal influenza (n = 193, 71.0%) and post-splenectomy vaccination (n = 58, 21.3%). The commonest reasons for infection control consultations were suspected tuberculosis or contact with tuberculosis (n = 11, 47.8%) and herpes zoster infection (shingles) (n = 7, 30.4%). CONCLUSIONS: ID specialists play an important role in the clinical management of patients with cancer. ID physicians who work in cancer centers need to be specialized in treating IDs, diagnosing the causes of fevers of unknown origin, and controlling infection.