Bacterial profiling and antibiotic-resistant pattern among cancer patients

The study aimed to assess the bacterial profile and antibiotic resistance pattern among cancer patients attending B.P Koirala Memorial Cancer Hospital, Bharatpur, Chitwan. Hospital-based cross-sectional studies were carried out on 384 samples collected from cancer patients and were processed.  After the growth of the organism on different media, Grams staining was done for primary identification and later identified by biochemical characteristics and was processed for antibiotic susceptibility by Kirby-Bauer method of disk diffusion and was reported sensitive or resistant by measuring zone of inhibition following the CLSI guideline (2020). The collected data were analyzed using SPSS V20.0.

Out of 384 participants, 55.4% were male and 44.6% were female. Growth was found in 43.5% of specimens. Hematogenous cancer growth was 40.7% while 45.5% of growth was among non-hematogenous cancer patients. Escherichia coli were reported 38.9%, Klebsiella spp. 20.4%. Pseudomonas spp. 19.2%, Citrobacter spp. with 9.0%, and Acinetobacter spp. with 4.8%. Like-wise Staphylococcus aureus and Enterobacter aerogenes contributed 3.6% and 3.0% respectively. Proteus spp and CoNS were 0.6% each. E.coli was found to be highly resistant to Amoxycillin (98.5%), followed by Ciprofloxacin (73.9%) and then Cotrimoxazole (67.7%) while low resistance was found to Amikacin. Staphylococcus aureus was the most prevalent Gram-positive found to be 100% resistant to Amoxycillin, Ciprofloxacin, Cloxacillin, and Cephalexin i.e; 66.7% each and fully sensitive to Amikacin and Tigecycline. Gram-negative bacteria were more frequently isolated than gram-positive bacteria. Many opportunistic pathogens including MDR strains may readily infect patients with cancer.