A clinical study of pegylated recombinant human granulocyte colony stimulating factor (PEG-rhG-CSF) in preventing neutropenia during concurrent chemoradiotherapy of cervical cancer

PURPOSE: To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of pegylated recombinant human granulocyte colony stimulating factor (PEG-rhG-CSF) in preventing neutropenia during chemoradiotherapy in patients with cervical cancer. METHODS: From August 2018 to April 2020, 60 patients who were pathologically confirmed as cervical cancer were randomly divided into two groups at a ratio of 2:1: PEG-modified-rhG-CSF experimental group and control group. The primary endpoints were the incidence of grade 3–4 neutropenia. Secondary endpoints included the duration of grade 3–4 neutropenia, the incidence of grade 4 neutropenia, the incidence of febrile neutropenia (FN), delay rate of chemotherapy, prolonged time of chemotherapy, time to complete radiotherapy and safety. RESULTS: The incidence of grade 3–4 neutropenia in the experimental group was significantly lower than the control group (10% vs. 77.78%, P < 0.001). However, there was no statistical significance between the two groups in the duration of grade 3–4 neutropenia (3.75 days vs. 5.07 days, P = 0.871). The experimental group was better than the control group in the incidence of grade 4 neutropenia, the incidence of FN and delay rate of chemotherapy, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). Besides, the prolonged time of chemotherapy and the time to complete radiotherapy in the experimental group were less than those in the control group, but the difference was not statistically significant (P > 0.05). The incidence of adverse events in the experimental group and control group were 55.00 and 94.44%, respectively, and the difference was statistically significant (P = 0.003). CONCLUSION: PEG-rhG-CSF preventive treatment used in the course of chemoradiotherapy for patients with cervical cancer can reduce the incidence of neutropenia and improve the incidence of delayed chemotherapy cycles. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04542356. Registered 9 September 2020 - Retrospectively registered.