Successful treatment of persistent bronchorrhea by gefitinib in a case with Recurrent Bronchioloalveolar Carcinoma: a case report.
BACKGROUND: Bronchorrhea is one of late complaints in patients with bronchioloalveolar carcinoma (BAC) and hampers their quality of life. Although an effective treatment for bronchorrhea in these patients has not been established, recently we have treated effectively one case of persistent bronchorrhea associated with clinical recurrent BAC with gefitinib (ZD1839, 'Iressa trade mark '; AstraZeneca Japan; Osaka, Japan). CASE PRESENTATION: A 63-year-old Japanese female had undergone left pneumonectomy with radical lymph node dissection (ND2a) for diffuse type bronchioloalveolar carcinoma originated in left lower lobe. Multiple pulmonary metastases in right lung were found one year after operation. Pulmonary metastatic lesion has grown and she complained of progressive symptoms of massive watery sputum and dyspnea, four years after operation. Although her symptom was getting worse in spite of routine treatment, it completely disappeared within 2 weeks of starting oral gefitinib. Thereafter, she has been symptom-free and shows good partial response on repeat scan after 9 months of oral gefitinib. CONCLUSIONS: The dramatic remission of persistent bronchorrhea by gefitinib in the presented case suggests that gefitinib might be a promising option for bronchioloalveolar carcinoma, particularly in cases with severe bronchorrhea. Although it is not possible to comment on whether the improvement came from tumor cell death itself or suppressive effect of mucin synthesis by the epidermal growth factor receptor-tyrosine kinase inhibitory action.
Takao
Motoshi
M
Department of Thoracic Surgery, Mie University School of Medicine, 2-174 Edobashi, Tsu, Mie 514-8507, Japan. takao@clin.medic.mie-u.ac.jp
Inoue
Kentarou
K
Watanabe
Fumiaki
F
Onoda
Koji
K
Shimono
Takatsugu
T
Shimpo
Hideto
H
Yada
Isao
I