2001 Volume 41 Issue 6 Pages 667-672
Background: There are a few reports of pulmonary toxicity concerning combined chemotherapy with gemcitabin (GEM) and docetaxel (TXT). In this report, we describe five cases with non-small cell lung cancer which developed interstitialpnemonitis as drug adverse reaction under the treatment of combined chemotherapy with GEM (800-1000mg/m2, day 1 & 8) and TXT (50-60mg/m2, day 8) every 3 weeks.
Cases: Out of 25 patients treated with combined chemotherapy from August 1999 to April 2001, five patients showedinterstitial pneumonitis, and all showed the same toxicity pattern on days 15-18 in the 2nd course with the same events, such as fever, hypoxia, LDH elevation and interstitial shadow on X-ray film. These patients responded to steroid therapyand recovered quickly. Three of these 5 patients showed cutaneous toxicity (eruption or itch) before pulmonary toxicity.We observed this pulmonary toxicity only in this combination, and not in other combinations such as TXT and other (none out of 46 cases) or GEM and other (none out of 30 cases) in this period.
Conclusion: Careful attention should be paid in these rare cases. It is necessary to investigate incidences and mechanismsof this toxicity in the future.
