Therapy of deep-seated fungal infections with 5-fluorocytosine.

Abstract

Summary: Administration of 5-fluorocytosine in fourteen cases of invasive or systemic fungal infection was accompanied in ten by elimination of the infection. Results which particularly indicated the usefulness of the drug consisted of instances where fungal infections were eliminated following the failure of amphotericin B treatment, and in some patients whose antimicrobial defences had been compromised by immunosuppressive therapy. Success was frequently obtained in infections with Candida and Aspergillus species, as well as in penetrating ocular infections where laboratory identification of the fungus had not been made. The outcome in two cases of Cryptococcus neoformans meningitis was unsatisfactory, and this was shown in one to be due to the emergence of a resistant strain. Toxicity of a minor and reversible nature was encountered in four patients, and consisted of diarrhoea, anaemia or hepatocellular damage.