Economic analysis of oral posaconazole prophylaxis in acute myeloid leukemia during remission induction in Turkey

OBJECTIVE: Invasive fungal infections (IFI) are important and trending causes of mortality in patients with acute leukemia, especially during the remission induction. METHODS: In this study, 225 patients who were diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and undergoing intensive treatment for remission induction were enrolled in a retrospective manner. RESULTS: Within the whole group, which consisted of 225 patients, 90 patients received prophylactic antifungal treatment (PAT) (40%), while 135 patients did not (60%) receive. The mean cost of hospitalization was 9.151,6 (2.872,6-20.483,3) US dollars. Gender distribution and mean ages of groups were similar. One hundred fourteen patients not on PAT (84.4%) and five patients on PAT (5.5%) received intravenous antifungal treatment. Thirty-two of the patients who were not on PAT (23.7%) and 11 of the patients on PAT died during remission induction (12.22%). The mean day of the hospitalization was 22.61 days for the patients on PAT and 33.89 days for the patients who were not on PAT. In patients on PAT, the mean number of transfused platelet units was six (0-9), while 12.51 (4-43) units for patients who were not on PAT. CONCLUSION: In our study, the oral suspension form of posaconazole was observed to be cost-effective to prevent IFI with a significant decrease in mortality during remission induction treatment.