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Blood, 15 February 2004, Vol. 103, No. 4, pp. 1527-1533.
Prepublished online as a Blood First Edition Paper on October 2, 2003; DOI 10.1182/blood-2003-08-2644.

Submitted July 25, 2003
Accepted September 9, 2003
Itraconazole versus fuconazole for prevention of fungal infections in allogeneic stem cell transplant patients
Kieren A Marr*, Fulvio Crippa, Wendy Leisenring, Maggie Hoyle, Michael Boeckh, S A Balajee, W G Nichols, Benjamin Musher, and Lawrence Corey
Program in Infectious Diseases, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA; Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
Program in Clinical Statistics, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA
Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
Department of Medicine, San Raffale Hospital and University, Milan, Italy
Program in Infectious Diseases, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA
* Corresponding author; email: kmarr{at}fhcrc.org.
Prophylactic fluconazole prevents candidiasis, however this drug has no activity against moulds. We performed a randomized trial to determine if prophylactic itraconazole prevents invasive mould infections (IMI). Three-hundred and four allogeneic SCT patients were randomized to receive fluconazole (400 mg/day) or itraconazole (oral solution 2.5 mg/kg three times daily, or IV 200 mg daily) for 180 days after SCT, or until 4 weeks after discontinuation of graft vs. host disease (GVHD) therapy. Proven or probable invasive fungal infections (IFI) were evaluated by intent-to-treat and "on-treatment" analyses. More patients in the itraconazole arm developed hepatotoxicities, and more patients were discontinued from itraconazole due to toxicities or GI intolerance (36% vs. 16%, p<0.001). Intent-to-treat analysis demonstrated no difference in the incidence of IFI during the intended study period (fluconazole 16% vs. itraconazole 13%, p=0.46); however, fewer itraconazole patients developed IFI on-treatment (fluconazole 15% vs. itraconazole 7%, p=0.03). Itraconazole provided better protection against IMI (fluconazole 12% vs. itraconazole 5%, p=0.03), but similar protection against candidiasis (3% vs. 2%, p=0.69). There was no difference in overall, or fungal-free survival. Itraconazole appears to prevent IMI in the subset of patients who tolerate the drug, however, toxicities and poor tolerability limit its success as prophylactic therapy.

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