Study Status: Completed
Recruit Status: Completed
Study Type: Observational
Official Title: Evaluation of Caspofungin or Micafungin as Empiric Antifungal Therapy in Adult Patients With Persistent Febrile Neutropenia: A Retrospective, Observational, Sequential Coh
Brief Summary: Invasive fungal infections are an important cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with neutropenia who are receiving chemotherapy for cancer. Early diagnosis of these infections is difficult and fever may be the only sign. A delay in treatment while a diagnosis is pursued may lead to increased morbidity and mortality. There are now several echinocandins available with similar in vitro spectrum of activity. Caspofungin is the only echinocandin Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved for empiric antifungal therapy in febrile neutropenia. Although all echinocandin antifungal agents have similar spectrum of activity, there are limited data on the use of micafungin in patients with persistent fever and neutropenia (FN). In November 2006 the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee at Brigham & Women's Hospital / Dana Farber Cancer Institute (BWH/DFCI) switched from caspofungin to micafungin as our formulary echinocandin. Given the limited clinical data on the use of micafungin as empiric antifungal therapy in patients with FN, we sought to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of micafungin, compared with caspofungin, for this indication using a sequential cohort analysis of patients treated before and after the formulary change at Brigham and Women's Hospital.