Safety and efficacy of a caspofungin-based combination therapy for treatment of proven or probable aspergillosis in pediatric hematological patients

Table 1 Main demographic and clinical characteristics of patients included in this study.

	Group A	Group B	Total
Number of patients	22	18	40
Gender
Male	14	7	21
Female	8	11	19
Age at IA diagnosis
Median (years)	11.94	8.64	11.05
Range	(1.3–17.2)	(1.18–17.9)	(1.18–17.9)
Underlying disease
ALL-AML	15	13	28
CML	2	0	2
NHL+HD	2	2	4
MDS	2	1	3
Non-malignant diseases	1	2	3
IA after relapse of underlying disease	9	5	14
Interval from relapse to IA (days)
Median	69	105	74
Range	(18–174)	(7–261)	(7–261)
IA after allogeneic HSCT	7	6	13
Source of SC
BM	7	4	11
PB	/	1	1
CB	/	1	1
Interval from HSCT to IA (days)
Median	14	15	14
Range	(4–308)	(0–54)	(0–308)
IA after diagnosis of underlying disease	6	7	13
Interval from diagnosis to IA (days)
Median	115	46	74
Range	(15–318)	(13–76)	(13–318)
Remission status of underlying disease *	21	16	37
Complete remission	6	7	13
Other status	15	9	24

Group A comprises patients given caspofungin-based combination therapy starting within 7 days from diagnosis of IA; Group B consists of patients given caspofungin-based combination therapy starting after 7 days from diagnosis of IA.
IA, invasive aspergillosis; ALL, acute lymphoblastic leukemia; AML, acute myeloid leukemia; NHL, non-Hodgkin Lymphoma; HD, Hodgkin Lymphoma; MDS, myelodysplastic syndrome; HSCT, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation; BM, bone marrow; PB, peripheral blood; CB, cord blood; Other status: refractory or progressive disease; *only for the 37 children with malignant diseases.

ISSN: 1471-2334