Successful Treatment of Breakthrough Trichosporon asahii Fungemia by the Combination Therapy of Fluconazole and Liposomal Amphotericin B in a Patient with Follicular Lymphoma

Mycopathologia. 2021 Mar;186(1):113-117. doi: 10.1007/s11046-020-00525-x. Epub 2021 Jan 3.

Abstract

Invasive trichosporonosis is a rare and lethal fungal infection that occurs in immunocompromised patients. Breakthrough trichosporonosis can occur in patients treated with echinocandins since Trichosporon spp. are resistant to these antifungal agents. We report a case of breakthrough Trichosporon asahii fungemia. A 62-year-old Japanese woman with relapsed follicular lymphoma was treated empirically with broad-spectrum antibiotics and micafungin due to an intermittent fever during reinduction chemotherapy. After four cycles of anti-cancer chemotherapy, she experienced a high neutropenic fever and T. asahii was subsequently detected from a blood culture. The patient was not given voriconazole due to the contraindication for use with carbamazepine, and she was successfully treated with fluconazole plus liposomal amphotericin B without any serious complications. The combined therapy of fluconazole and liposomal amphotericin B may therefore be useful in treating T. asahii fungemia, especially in patients receiving antiepileptic agents.

Keywords: Fluconazole; Hematologic neoplasms; Immunocompromised host; Liposomal amphotericin B; Trichosporonosis.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Amphotericin B / therapeutic use
  • Antifungal Agents / therapeutic use
  • Basidiomycota
  • Fluconazole / therapeutic use
  • Fungemia* / drug therapy
  • Humans
  • Lymphoma, Follicular* / drug therapy
  • Middle Aged
  • Trichosporon*
  • Trichosporonosis* / drug therapy

Substances

  • Antifungal Agents
  • liposomal amphotericin B
  • Amphotericin B
  • Fluconazole

Supplementary concepts

  • Trichosporon asahii