Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-2026
Identifier
DOI: 10.1093/ofid/ofag149; PMCID: PMC13037757
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Pediatric oncology and hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) patients have elevated risk for Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI), which can prolong hospitalization and delay chemotherapy. Colonization is an important prelude to symptomatic CDI. We sought to characterize colonization status in these patients.
METHODS: We retrospectively studied 276 stools longitudinally collected over 34 months from 32 HSCT and 12 oncology patients treated at a single tertiary center. Specimens were cultured for C difficile and compared by whole genome sequencing. The fecal microbiome was characterized by 16S rRNA gene sequencing.
RESULTS: Baseline cultures were positive in 16 (50%) HSCT patients and 2 (12%) oncology. On subsequent samples, 64% of patients who were initially negative acquired colonization: 8 of 15 (53%) HSCT and 8 of 10 (80%) oncology. Nine clonal strains and 25 multilocus sequence types were identified by whole genome sequencing, with 4 clones found in both cohorts. Nine patients had different strains at different time points. Seven clonal strains were found in multiple patients. Seven (15.9%) patients had symptomatic CDI.
CONCLUSIONS:C difficile acquisition and colonization are common in pediatric oncology and HSCT patients. The high prevalence of clonally related strains in multiple patients suggests that asymptomatic patients may be important reservoirs of this pathogen and lead to symptomatic CDI in some patients. Gut microbial composition may influence the risk of colonization.
Journal Title
Open Forum Infect Dis
Volume
13
Issue
4
First Page
149
Last Page
149
PubMed ID
41923890
Keywords
clostridium difficile infections; hematopoietic stem cell transplantation; medical oncology; infections; microbial colonization; clostridium difficile; pediatric oncology; microbiome
Recommended Citation
Willis DN, Dubberke ER, Hayashi RJ, et al. Clostridioides difficile Colonization and Infection in Pediatric Oncology and Stem Cell Transplant Patients. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2026;13(4):ofag149. Published 2026 Mar 21. doi:10.1093/ofid/ofag149
Comments
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC BY license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Publisher's Link: https://academic.oup.com/ofid/article/13/4/ofag149/8531304?login=false