Success rate and risk factors for failure of empirical antifungal therapy with itraconazole in patients with hematological malignancies: A multicenter, prospective, open-label, observational study in Korea

Soo Jeong Kim, June Won Cheong, Yoo Hong Min, Young Jin Choi, Dong Gun Lee, Je Hwan Lee, Deok Hwan Yang, Sang Min Lee, Sung Hyun Kim, Yang Soo Kim, Jae Yong Kwak, Jinny Park, Jin Young Kim, Hoon Gu Kim, Byung Soo Kim, Hun Mo Ryoo, Jun Ho Jang, Min Kyoung Kim, Hye Jin Kang, In Sung ChoYeung Chul Mun, Deog Yeon Jo, Ho Young Kim, Byeong Bae Park, Jin Seok Kim

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

We assessed the success rate of empirical antifungal therapy with itraconazole and evaluated risk factors for predicting the failure of empirical antifungal therapy. A multicenter, prospective, observational study was performed in patients with hematological malignancies who had neutropenic fever and received empirical antifungal therapy with itraconazole at 22 centers. A total of 391 patients who had abnormal findings on chest imaging tests (31.0%) or a positive result of enzyme immunoassay for serum galactomannan (17.6%) showed a 56.5% overall success rate. Positive galactomannan tests before the initiation of the empirical antifungal therapy (P=0.026, hazard ratio [HR], 2.28; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.10-4.69) and abnormal findings on the chest imaging tests before initiation of the empirical antifungal therapy (P=0.022, HR, 2.03; 95% CI, 1.11-3.71) were significantly associated with poor outcomes for the empirical antifungal therapy. Eight patients (2.0%) had premature discontinuation of itraconazole therapy due to toxicity. It is suggested that positive galactomannan tests and abnormal findings on the chest imaging tests at the time of initiation of the empirical antifungal therapy are risk factors for predicting the failure of the empirical antifungal therapy with itraconazole. (Clinical Trial Registration on National Cancer Institute website, NCT01060462).

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)61-68
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Korean Medical Science
Volume29
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2014

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 The Korean Academy of Medical Sciences.

Keywords

  • Empirical antifungal therapy
  • Galactomannan test
  • Hematological malignancy
  • Itraconazole

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