Epidemiology and treatment of invasive fungal diseases in patients with multiple myeloma: findings from a multicenter prospective study from China

The aim of this study is to investigate the epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment and risk factors of multiple myeloma patients with invasive fungi disease (IFD) in China. We analyzed multiple myeloma (MM) patients receiving chemotherapy in a prospective multicenter study. Basic characteristics, the diagnosis, and treatment of IFD were recorded. A total of 395 MM patients were enrolled, who received a total of 443 chemotherapy courses. Among them, 17 IFDs were diagnosed during one chemotherapy course. Fourteen of these were possible IFD and 3 were probable IFD. Ten of the 14 patients with possible IFD had lung infection. Thirty eight (8.6 %) patients received antifungal prophylaxis, and 47.4 % of them were administered with fluconazole. Patients who had a history of IFD or underwent a combined therapy with two antibiotics for over 7 days and with a history of granulocytopenia or ductus venosus insertion were more likely to be treated with antifungal prophylaxis. All of first-line antifungal therapies were monotherapy. Eleven (84.6 %) cases were treated with azoles. The median time of initial antifungal therapy was 8 days. The general condition of two patients with probable IFD and 10 patients (90.9 %) with possible IFD improved, while 1 patient with possible IFD died. Multivariate analysis revealed that history of IFD is an independent risk factor of IFD. The present multicenter study suggests that the incidence of IFD per chemotherapy courses in MM patients is 3.8 % and most patients are labelled as having possible IFD. Fluconazole is the most common antifungal agent for prophylaxis and voriconazole for therapeutic treatment. Previous IFD is a probable independent risk factor of IFD in MM patients receiving chemotherapy.