Table 2.
Patients treated with caspofungin
| Type of use | Monotherapy (N = 36) |
Combination therapy (N = 6) |
Total (N = 42) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caspofungin first-line therapy* | 10 (28%) | 1 (17%) | 11 (26%) |
| Caspofungin second-line therapy** | 26 (72%) | 5 (83%) | 31 (74%) |
| Thereof reason for switching to caspofungin | |||
| Clinically refractory to first-line therapy | 21 (58%) | 5 (83%) | 26 (62%) |
| Toxicity with first-line therapy | 2 (6%) | 0 | 2 (5%) |
| Other** | 3 (8%) | 0 | 3 (7%) |
*The reason for using caspofungin as the first line therapy was "probable aspergillosis" in 10 patients and "proven aspergillosis" in 1 patient.
**In 25 patients, this consisted of azoles (9 posaconazole, 7 voriconazole, 6 fluconazole (of these, 5 for prophylactic use and 1 for unknown reasons), 3 itraconazole), in 5 patients polyenes (2 amphotericin colloidal dispersion, 3 liposomal amphotericin B), and in 1 patient other antimycotics. Prior antimycotic therapy had been given for a mean duration of 13.2 days.
**Breakthrough infection during azole prophylaxis