The Rebuck skin window as a guide in cancer chemotherapy.

The skin-window inflammatory cell response was studied in 64 adult patients with various malignant neoplasms before initiation of chemotherapy and was repeated when a neutrophil level of 2500 cells/mm3 or less occurred. Of the 21 neutropenic patients, 15 had an abnormal neutrophil cell response and nine had an abnormal mononuclear cell response. Of the nine patients who had infection, eight had an abnormal mononuclear cell response and seven of the eight had a concomitant abnormal neutrophil response. The Rebuck skin window may be a practical clinical test to evaluate the risk for infection in neutropenic patients receiving cancer chemotherapy.