Therapeutic Activity of Liposomal Amphotericin B in Systemic Mycoses

Abstract

Several clinical trials are presently underway to study various liposomal formulations of antineoplastics and antimicrobial agents (1–3). Both liposomal amphotericin B (L-AmpB) and various liposome formulations have been used in the treatment of experimental systemic fungal infections (4–6) and leishmaniasis (7,8) in animals. In most reports, an enhanced therapeutic index was observed. A uniform reduction in the toxic effects usually attributed to AmpB was reported and, in some cases, an enhanced therapeutic efficacy was also attained. We recently reported on the use of L-AmpB in 46 patients with systemic fungal infections (9). of that number, 31 had leukemia, 2 had lymphoma, 11 had other diagnoses (5 had received intensive immunosuppressive therapy following a heart transplantation, 2 had multiple myeloma, and the rest had other malignancies); 2 patients had no underlying disease. Forty-one of these patients had been previously treated with conventional AmpB. the fungal diagnosis was candidiasis in 21 patients, aspergillosis in 19, agents of mucormycosis in 3, and other diagnoses in the rest.