Reactions 1252 - 16 May 2009

SAntineoplastics

Fatal infections, and bleomycin-inducedpneumonitis: 10 case reports

In a retrospective study of patients with Hodgkin’sdisease, 10 patients were identified, who developed severetreatment-related toxicity during antineoplastic therapy[dosages not stated]; six patients developed bleomycin-induced pneumonitis (BIP), three patients died of bacterialinfections and one patient died of invasive aspergillosis.[See table for patient characteristics.]

Patient characteristicsPatient Sex/age (y) Antineoplastic ADR

therapy

1 M/72 ABVD BIP2 F/77 ABVD BIP3 M/72 ABVD BIP4 M/68 ABVD BIP5 M/59 ABVD BIP6 F/39 BEACOPPesc BIP

7 M/61 BEACOPPbas bacterial infection8 F/50 BEACOPPesc bacterial infection9 M/51 DHAP bacterial infection10 M/39 BEACOPPesc invasive aspergillosis

esc: escalated, bas: baseline

The patients were treated according to the followingprotocols: ABVD (doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine anddacarbazine), BEACOPP (bleomycin, doxorubicin,etoposide, cyclophosphamide, vincristine, procarbazineand prednisone) or DHAP (dexamethasone, cytarabine andcisplatin); patients 3, 5 and 6 also received radiotherapy.BIP developed after 2–6 therapy cycles in patients 1–6 andwas diagnosed according to clinical symptoms, andfindings on chest CT and bronchoalveolar lavage.Treatment was discontinued in patients 1–3, 5 and 6; inpatient 4, therapy was changed to a COPP protocol. All sixpatients received high-dose steroids and completelyrecovered.

Patients 7–10 developed fatal infections after unspecifiedtreatment durations. Patient 10 died of disseminatedinvasive Aspergillus fumigatus mycosis during first-linetherapy, while the other three patients died of bacterialinfections.Fong D, et al. Hodgkin lymphoma in Tyrol - a population-based study. Annals ofHematology 88: 449-456, No. 5, May 2009 - Austria 801141429

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Reactions 16 May 2009 No. 12520114-9954/10/1252-0001/$14.95 © 2010 Adis Data Information BV. All rights reserved