BOOP as a rare complication of gemcitabine therapy.
Gemcitabine is commonly used in combination with carboplatin in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Gemcitabine has good clinical activity against NSCLC and is well tolerated by the patients. Myelosuppression is its dose-limiting toxicity. A potential side effect of gemcitabine is pulmonary toxicity. Among pulmonary toxicities, pneumonia, bronchospasm, acute respiratory distress syndrome, pleural effusion and interstitial pneumonitis are well documented, but bronchiolitis obliterans organising pneumonia (BOOP) is a rarely observed adverse effect of gemcitabine therapy. The authors report a female patient who presented with progressively worsening shortness of breath, low-grade fever and non-productive cough 10 days after completion of gemcitabine therapy for poorly differentiated invasive squamous cell carcinoma of lung with bone metastases. Histopathology of a transbronchial biopsy established the diagnosis of BOOP. Treatment with intravenous steroids resulted in prompt clinical improvement, but the patient later died of progression of her lung cancer.
Department of Internal Medicine, Fairview Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
Hameem I
HI
Kawsar
Timothy P
TP
Spiro
Amy
A
Cocco
Hamed A
HA
Daw
D000964:Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic / Q000009:adverse effects*; D018549:Cryptogenic Organizing Pneumonia / Q000139:chemically induced*; D003841:Deoxycytidine / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000031:analogs & derivatives*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D000093542:Gemcitabine
D000964:Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic; D003841:Deoxycytidine; D000093542:Gemcitabine