Abstract
Background : Gefitinib (Iressa) proved to be effective in patients with non-small cell lung cancer who had been placed on chemotherapy. Although Gefitinib was reported to cause limited serious toxic effects, a case of death by acute pulmonary disorder was reported in July 2002.
Method : We administered Gefitinib to 55 patients during the period from August to December 2002 and three of them died of acute interstitial pneumonia.
From these 55 patients, we selected 16 individuals who had a history of a certain lung disease or thoracic irradiation and discussed risk factors.
Result : Of these 16 patients, three developed acute interstitial pneumonia approximately one month after the administration of Gefitinib. These patients were microbiologically and serologically diagnosed with acute interstitial pneumonia resulting from the treatment with Gefitinib.
Conclusion : In the present study, we regarded fibrogenesis as a major risk factor for acute pulmonary disorder although we did not obtain this finding from all cases.
