Amost ten percent of women who receive chemotherapy for breast cancer are hospitalized for adverse effects stemming from their treatment, according to a report in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston reviewed Medicare data for 35,060 women diagnosed with stages I through IV breast cancer between 1991 and 1996 in an effort to better understand the hospitalization rate for toxicity from breast cancer chemotherapy.

More than 9 percent of the women who received chemotherapy were admitted with a diagnosis of neutropenia, fever, thrombocytopenia, or adverse effect of systemic therapy, the researchers reported.

The chances of being hospitalized for toxicity varied directly with the stage of the cancer, ranging from a 6.3 percent hospitalization rate for patients with stage I breast cancer, 8.1 percent for stage II, 12.3 percent for stage III, and 13.2 percent for stage IV.

The hospitalization rates for adverse effects did not increase, however, with age, the researchers found.

They also reported that toxicities were more likely in patients whose therapy included chemotherapy drugs containing anthracycline.

Other sources: Journal of Clinical Oncology