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- Title
Mucormycosis in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia: report of 5 cases .
- Authors
Khattab, Taha; Atra, Ayad; Felimban, Sami; Kamal, Hneef; Osoba, Abimbola
- Abstract
Mucormycoses are serious fungal infections of immunocompromised patients which may take several clinical forms according to the site affected. The diagnosis depends on demonstration of characteristic hyphae in tissue and specimens obtained from the lesion. Early treatment with amphotericin–B or its liposomal forms and repeated surgical resection are the mainstay of treatment. We report 5 children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who developed mucormycosis while on chemotherapy, 4 during induction and one during delayed intensification. The sites of infection were skin and cutaneous tissue (n=3), pulmonary (n=1) and one rhinocerebral. One patient with cutaneous mucormycosis died before the start of specific antifungal therapy (index case) and the other two were alive following treatment with amphotericin-B and repeated surgical debridements, one of them died during reinduction for late bone marrow relapse. The patient with rhinocerebral mucormycosis died of disseminated disease. One patient with pulmonary disease recovered after treatment with amphotericin-B and surgical resection of the affected segment. He subsequently died of toxicity post-allogeneic bone marrow transplantation following relapse of his underlying leukemia. Despite recent advances in antifungal therapy and surgical techniques, mucormysosis remains a serious infection with a high morbidity and mortality. Early diagnosis and radical surgical resection with high dose of liposomal ampho-B are the mainstay of treatment.
- Publication
Cancer Therapy, 2009, Vol 7, p71
- ISSN
1543-9135
- Publication type
Academic Journal