Managements of urinary catheterization and urinary tract infection in cancer patients

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the most frequently seen bacterial infections. Recently, cancer has become a very common disease, having the highest mortality rate in Japan, and the number of patients requiring urinary indwelling catheters has increased. Indwelling catheters are employed as drainage for various urinary tract obstructions as well as local care and general management. These catheters provide a niche for opportunistic pathogens to colonize and form bacterial biofilms, causing intractable complicated UTI. The disease concept of catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) and efforts to prevent it have received general attention. More recently, the U. S. CDC updated the original guideline for prevention of CAUTI, published in 1981, and the Japanese guidelines for prevention of infections in the urological field were also published. Based on these new guidelines, we review practical ways to manage CAUTI in cancer patients, since infectious complications associated with CAUTI adversely affect cancer treatment.