Abstract
10 cases of chemotherapy death during recent 13 years in the Otorhinolaryngologic Department of Nihon University Itabashi Hospital were reviewed. They comprised 3.9% of all admission deaths during the same period in this Department. All cases, except one, died due to bone marrow depression following chemotherapy. One case died from pulmonary fibrosis caused by peplomycin. All cases were over the age of 60, except for 2 child cases with rhabdomyosarcoma, who has received massive chemotherapy, and 2 cases, aged 43 and 51, with recurrent tumors, who had history of chemotherapy and has undergone surgery just prior to the last chemotherapy. In most cases, risk factor-renal dysfunction, pulmonary metastases, elevated transaminase, and/or concurrent radiotherapy, and/or a history of chemotherapy was present. In myelosuppression cases, nadir appeared within 8 days of completion of the last chemotherapy. Except for 2 cases, the nadir white blood cell count were all 300/μl or less and the platelet count were 2.2×104/μl or less. 7 of 9 cases died within 8 days of the appearance of nadir.
