New Candida drug effective, with fewer ill effects

A new treatment for invasive candidosis and candidemia is as effective as liposomal amphotericin B but with fewer side effects, including fewer kidney function problems, researchers report online April 26 in The Lancet.

Ernst-Rudiger Kuse, MD, of the Klinik fur Viszeral und Transplantationschirurgie in Hannover, Germany, and colleagues compared results for 264 candidemia and invasive candidosis patients randomly treated with 100 mg daily of micafungin versus 267 patients given 3 mg/kg daily of liposomal amphotericin B.

After sorting cases according to neutropenia status at baseline, the researchers found a 0.7% difference in proportions. They also found that the two drugs' effectiveness did not depend on catheter status, number of blood neutrophils, main infection site, or other variables and adverse events were fewer with micafungin.

Kuse ER, Chetchotisakd P, da Cunha CA, et al. Micafungin versus liposomal amphotericin B for candidaemia and invasive candidosis: a phase III randomised double-blind trial. Lancet. 2007;369:1519-1527.