Posaconazole prophylaxis in patients with acute myelogenous leukaemia – results from an observational study

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Abstract
Patients with acute myelogenous leukaemia (AML) and neutropenia after chemotherapy are at high risk for life-threatening invasive fungal disease (IFD), in particular, invasive aspergillosis (IA). The aim of the study was to evaluate data on characteristics, risk factors, complications and additional antifungal treatment of patients with AML receiving posaconazole prophylaxis (PP) after chemotherapy in an actual clinical setting. A retrospective single-centre observational study on 40 patients with AML, median age 66 years, was conducted. PP 200 mg three times daily was given routinely. After 76 cycles of remission induction chemotherapy followed by PP, median duration of 31 days (range 6-61 days), no fatal case occurred. The majority of patients had at least one additional risk factor for IFD and during 32 cycles (42.1%), three risk factors were present. During 40 therapy cycles (52.6%), fever of unknown origin occurred. Pneumonia was diagnosed after 23 cycles (30.3%), thereof one case of proven IA (1.3%). PP was interrupted in 25 cycles (32.9%) and was followed by systemic antifungal therapy with different agents, with a median duration 15 days (range: 6-32 days). PP appears to be an effective and well-tolerated protection against IFD for AML patients under natural clinical conditions.