Entries by Amar Safdar
Baculovirus-expressed influenza vaccine. A novel technology for safe and expeditious vaccine production for human use.
Safdar A, Cox MM. Expert Opin Investig Drugs. 2007 Jul;16(7):927-34. Review. Abstract Effectiveness of the influenza vaccine in persons with high-risk conditions needs to be improved. In this paper, the authors review various vaccination strategies, including repeated doses of the vaccine or the use of higher hemagglutinin (HA) content vaccines that have been shown to […]
Antifungal immunity and adjuvant cytokine immune enhancement in cancer patients with invasive fungal infections.
Safdar A. Clin Microbiol Infect. 2007 Jan;13(1):1-4. Review. Abstract Invasive fungal infections are common in severely immunosuppressed patients with cancer and in recipients of haematopoietic transplants. Response to antifungal therapy alone is often inadequate. Pro-inflammatory cytokines are critical for promoting innate and adaptive cellular antifungal immune responses. Recombinant cytokines, including granulocyte-macrophage-colony stimulating factor and interferon-gamma, […]
Polymicrobial infection in patients with cancer: an underappreciated and underreported entity.
Rolston KV, Bodey GP, Safdar A. Clin Infect Dis. 2007 Jul 15;45(2):228-33. Epub 2007 Jun 4. Review. Abstract Polymicrobial infections account for ~15% of infections in immunocompromised patients with cancer. However, limited information exists regarding the spectrum and microbiology of these infections, even in severely neutropenic patients. Most studies describe only monomicrobial bloodstream infections in detail, […]
Stenotrophomonas maltophilia pneumonia in cancer patients without traditional risk factors for infection, 1997-2004.
Aisenberg G, Rolston KV, Dickey BF, Kontoyiannis DP, Raad II, Safdar A. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis. 2007 Jan;26(1):13-20. Abstract In order to elucidate the spectrum of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia pneumonia in cancer patients without traditional risk factors, 44 cancer patients (cases) with S. maltophilia pneumonia in whom S. maltophilia pneumonia risk factors were not present […]
High-dose caspofungin combination antifungal therapy in patients with hematologic malignancies and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
Safdar A, Rodriguez G, Rolston KV, O’Brien S, Khouri IF, Shpall EJ, Keating MJ, Kantarjian HM, Champlin RE, Raad II, Kontoyiannis DP. Bone Marrow Transplant. 2007 Feb;39(3):157-64. Abstract Pneumocandins have concentration-dependent antifungal activity and higher dose of caspofungin (HD-CAP) in combination with other licensed antifungal therapy (OLAT) may improve response. Thirty-four patients who received HD-CAP […]
Streptococcus pneumoniae infections in 47 hematopoietic stem cell transplantation recipients: clinical characteristics of infections and vaccine-breakthrough infections, 1989-2005.
Youssef S, Rodriguez G, Rolston KV, Champlin RE, Raad II, Safdar A. Medicine (Baltimore). 2007 Mar;86(2):69-77. Abstract Streptococcus pneumoniae infections can cause serious systemic disease in patients following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), and the response to pneumococcal vaccine is inadequate in most HSCT recipients. We evaluated the clinical spectrum of pneumococcal disease and vaccine-breakthrough infections […]