Bacterial infections are a major problem in cancer patients

Bacterial infections are a major problem in cancer patients. Bacteria isolated from blood cultures are either Gram-positive or Gram-negative such as Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter species, Enterobacteriaceae and others.

Another group of bacteria which can be isolated from blood cultures of cancer patients are mycoplasmas such as M.pulmonis, M. fermentans, M.hominis, M.salivarium and others.

Of interest in this connection are also the hemotrophic bacteria, the families Bartonellaceae and Anaplasmataceae. Organisms of the various genera of the family Anaplasmataceae are all quite similar morphologically and are similar morphologically to mycoplasmas and L-phase bacteria, cell wall-defective bacterial variants.

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