Candidemia in Children with Malignancies: Report from the Infection Working Group of the Hellenic Society of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology.

Candidemia is an important cause of morbidity and mortality especially in immunocompromised and hospitalized patients. We retrospectively collected data of candidemia cases that occurred in the seven Hematology-Oncology Departments/Units of Greece and the Stem Cell Transplant Unit between 2015 and 2019. In total, 19 episodes of candidemia in 19 patients were recorded. The majority of the patients (78.9%) had at least one risk factor for candidemia. The most frequent risk factors associated with candidemia observed in our patients were prolonged duration of hospitalization (30 days, range 1-141), presence of a central venous catheter at diagnosis of candidemia (73.7%) and antibiotics use during the last two weeks (84.2%). Candida parapsilosis was the most common species isolated accounting for 42.1%, followed by C. albicans (26.3%) and C. famata (15.8%). Nearly all of the patients (84.2%) received antifungal monotherapy with liposomal amphotericin B or echinocandins. The central venous catheter was removed in 78.6% of patients and the median time between the first positive blood culture and catheter removal was 3 days (range 1-9). Mortality at 28 days was 26.3%. In conclusion, a predominance of non-albicans species was observed in our study in conformity with the global trend.