Microbiome predicts blood infections in pediatric cancer patients
Cancer patients receive essential medicines, fluids, blood and nutrients through long, flexible tubes called central venous catheters, or central lines. But every year in the United States, these central lines are associated with an estimated 400,000 blood infections, many of which are fatal, and which cost the healthcare system upwards of $18 billion dollars annually. But what if some or even many of these infections aren't, in fact, introduced by central lines?