Table 4. Characteristics of the patients diagnosed with a colonization or contamination.

Case	Gender	Age	Underlying malignancy	Specimen	Diagnosis/Possible Source	Presentation/Clinical Symptoms	Prior Procedures	CVC or Other Device	Antibiotic Treatment	Other Treatment Intervention
1	F	60	Squamous cell carcinoma of skin/hand	Wound	Colonization	Chronic non-healing radiation ulcer	Surgical resection of radiation ulcer	None	Not treated	None
2	M	43	Metastatic melanoma	CSF	Contamination	None	Intrathecal cytarabine injection	Ommaya reservoir	Not treated	None
3	M	59	Chronic lymphocytic leukemia	Wound	Colonization	Non-healing scalp wound	Wound debridement, scalp flap	Port	Cephalexin given post-operatively after flap placed; wound was not suspected to be infected	None
4	M	69	Bladder cancer	Urine	Colonization	None	Cystourethroscopy	None	Prophylactic Bactrim	None
5	F	65	Squamous cell carcinoma of skin	Wound	Colonization	Painful nodule	Recent excision of cancer	None	Not treated	None
6	F	58	Squamous cell carcinoma of skin	Wound	Colonization	Pain and erythema	Recent excision of cancer	None	Not treated	None
7	F	72	Cervical cancer	Urine	Colonization	Hematuria	None	None	Not treated	None
8	M	58	Squamous cell carcinoma of lung	Wound	Colonization	Erythema of skin	None	None	Not treated	None
9	M	68	Renal cell carcinoma	Blood	Colonization	Hypotension	None	None	Vancomycin initially, then discontinued as culture was felt to be contaminant, hypotension was attributed to volume depletion	None
10	F	59	Plasma cell leukemia	Blood	Colonization	Fever, diarrhea, vomiting	None	None	Vancomycin initially, then discontinued as symptoms were attributed to other diagnosis	None

CVC, central venous catheter; F, female; M, male; CSF, cerebrospinal fluid.