2019 Volume 27 Issue 1 Pages 8-11
Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a highly malignant tumor and can metastasize to the bone marrow. Bone marrow metastasis could cause bone marrow dysfunction, such as anemia, leukopenia, and thrombocytopenia. Chemotherapy might aggravate thrombocytopenia, and therefore, it is not certain whether patients with severe thrombocytopenia due to bone marrow metastasis should be treated with chemotherapy. We report the case of a 70-year-old woman with SCLC who developed severe thrombocytopenia (below 20,000/μL) due to bone marrow metastasis. Chemotherapy restored her platelet count to normal levels. Although she discontinued chemotherapy because of higher brain dysfunction that occurred after prophylactic cranial irradiation, thrombocytopenia could be controlled using chemotherapy throughout her clinical course. Chemotherapy may be carried out safely in patients with severe thrombocytopenia due to bone marrow metastasis of SCLC.
