Source: Cancer  |  Posted 5 years ago

By Jill Stein

RHODES, GREECE -- October 5, 2006 -- The synthetic allylamine terbinafine provides significantly greater mycological and clinical cure rates in patients with tinea pedis than placebo and is similar to other antifungal agents that need to be applied for a longer period of time.

These findings were presented here at the 15[^]th[] Congress of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) by Hans Christian Korting, MD, professor, dermatology division, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat, Munich, Germany.

Dr. Korting and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis to evaluate the efficacy and safety of terbinafine in the treatment of athlete's foot with various formulations (ie, cream gel, and film-forming solution) and regimens (ie, 1 week, single dose) compared with placebo or an active control (ie, antifungal).

For their analysis, the investigators used data from 19 randomised, controlled trials that included 2,726 patients with a clinical and mycological diagnosis of tinea pedis.

Mycological cure was defined as a negative potassium hydroxide test result and negative fungal culture at 6 weeks after first application. Clinical cure was defined as the presence of only minimal symptoms and signs of infection.

Safety was defined by the number of reported adverse events.

Efficacy analysis indicated that the mycological cure rate was significantly higher in favour of terbinafine over placebo, with an odds ratio of 12.85 ([]P[] < .001). Comparable results were observed for the clinical cure rate, with an odds ratio of 6.544 ([]P[] < .001).

There were no significant differences in efficacy between the various formulations of terbinafine, its frequency of application, or duration of treatment.

Adverse event data demonstrated that the combined odds ratio for the 10 placebo-controlled trials was 1.28 ([]P[] = .462). For the 9 active controlled trials, the odds ratio was 1.131 ([]P[] = .706).

"Thus, the risk of adverse events with all formulations of terbinafine was comparable to placebo and active controls," Dr. Korting said.

He predicted that the new terbinafine 1% film-forming solution formulation can be expected to substantially improve patient compliance. "Its single-application regimen provides similar mycological and clinical cure rates as the other terbinafine formulations which require multiple applications," he said.

Athlete's foot is a common contagious disease caused by dermatophytes.

[Presentation title: Terbinafine for the Topical Treatment of Tinea Pedis - Meta-Analysis of Published RCT: Efficacy and Safety. Abstract P005.26]