ROCAS is a multicenter, prospective and observational study.
Twelve referral centers in the assistance of patients with cancer and HSCT in Argentina partipated of this study. They are located in the city of Buenos Aires and in the Province of Buenos Aires. Seven are private institutions and 5 are public.
The Antimicrobial Service of National Institute of Infectious Diseases INEI-ANLIS “Dr. Carlos G. Malbrán”, carries out the study of the resistance mechanisms of MDR-GNB.
Since May 2014, all patients with bacteremia and who meet the following criteria are included:
– Adult patients 18 years of age or older
– Solid or hematological malignancies treated with chemotherapy or biological agents (six months prior to admission), or if they had been receiving steroids (dose equal or higher to prednisone 20 mg daily or equivalent, for at least two weeks prior to admission); or
– HSCT patients, either allogeneic (with graft versus host disease at any time or without this disease in the first two years) or autologous (in the first year post-transplant)
– They are admitted for any reason
Patients in palliative care and recurrent bacteremias defined as episodes that occur within 4 weeks after the initial bacteraemia episode, caused by the same microorganism, are excluded.
Patients are evaluated and followed by the Infectious Diseases team at each center for either 30 days after the episode or until the patient’s death, if it happened before. Data are recorded in a file designed for this purpose with all the variables properly defined and then entered into a database for analysis.
The study was approved by different Ethics Committees from each center.