Pretransplant iron overload may be associated with increased risk of invasive fungal pneumonia (IFP) in patients that underwent allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (alloHSCT).

Invasive fungal pneumonia (IFP) has become increasingly common in patients that previously underwent alloHSCT. The aim of this study was to determine the role of hyperferritinemia, via iron overload in invasive fungal pneumonia in patients that underwent alloHSCT. Medical records of 73 patients with pneumonia that underwent alloHSCT were studied retrospectively, whereby a pre-transplantation serum ferritin level measured up to 100 days prior to transplantation of patients with invasive fungal pneumonia (IFP) and non-fungal pneumonia (non-IFP) was compared. Patient records revealed 35 and 38 cases of IFP and non-IFP, respectively. In risk evaluation for IFP, age, gender, HLA status, conditioning regimen, smoking history, and underlying disease were not significantly different among groups (p>0.05). However, performance status (Karnofsky) was significantly lower in patients with IFP (p<0.05). The median ferritin levels were 1,705 ng/ml (41-7198) in the IFP group and 845 ng/ml (18-7099) in non-IFP group and the difference was found statistically significant (p=0.001). Elevated pretransplant serum ferritin level is associated with IFP in patients that underwent alloHSCT, in particular when values exceed 1550 ng/ml.