2019 Volume 65 Issue 4 Pages 111-114
The main treatment for head and neck cancer with distant metastasis is the administration of antitumor drugs. Antitumor drugs cause various adverse events, but fatal ones are rare. We herein report a patient with recurrent oral cancer who developed acute limb ischemia caused by thrombosis in the common iliac artery. While being administered cisplatin, cetuximab and 5-FU, the patient's left leg suddenly became paralyzed. As a result an emergency thrombectomy was performed, and the patient's life and lower limb were saved. Cancer patients have a 4 to 7 times higher risk of thrombosis than non cancer patients. In particular the administration of CDDP and C-mab is associated with such an increased risk. The thrombosis may rarely become fatal, and therefore it is necessary to pay close attention to when administering antitumor drugs.
