Cancer treatment threatened by increasingly ineffective antimicrobial drugs

As pathogens become ever more resistant to antimicrobial drugs such as antibiotics, people living with cancer run a growing risk of adverse treatment outcomes, including death from an infection, even though their cancer is treatable.

Infections are one of the most common complications that a person living with cancer faces. As many as 1 in 5 cancer patients undergoing treatment are hospitalised due to infection, and antibiotics are the main line of defence.

A study on AMR in the US estimates that a 30% reduction in the efficiency of antibiotics used for cancer patients (in relation to surgery or chemotherapy) would cause an additional 120,000 infections and 6,300 deaths each year.