[A comparative clinical study on flucytosine alone and in combination with fluconazole in hematological malignancies:...

Two different flucytosine (5-FC) treatment regimens, one by itself and the other in combination with fluconazole (FLCZ) were compared in chemotherapy against mycotic infections in 60 patients with hematological diseases. The patients in a randomized fashion were assigned to the two treatments. In the combination regimen, the two drugs were used in half doses. beta-D-Glucan and D-arabinitol in the sera of patients were measured to document mycotic infections, and bacterial examinations were also performed. The efficacy of the combination therapy was 60.0% (18/30) and that of 5-FC alone was 65.5% (19/29). The stratified evaluation indicated that no factor was found to contribute to the efficacy in the two treatments with statistical significance. The side effects occurred in few cases and none of those was serious; including, one case of subjective symptom in each groups and two episodes of liver dysfunction in combination treatment. Changes in beta-D-glucan concentrations in the sera reflected well the pathophysiology of mycotic infections and clinical improvement. These results suggested that a combination of 5-FC and FLCZ at half doses provided a clinical benefit comparable to 5-FC alone at the ordinary dose, and the safety was considered satisfactory.