Leukemia & lymphoma
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Leukemia & lymphoma · May 2017
Use of fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography for diagnosis of bleomycin-induced pneumonitis in Hodgkin lymphoma.
Bleomycin is an antineoplastic agent causing fatal pulmonary toxicity. Early diagnosis of bleomycin-induced pneumonitis is crucial to prevent irreversible damage. Pulmonary function tests are unreliable for identifying risk of bleomycin toxicity. ⋯ One asymptomatic patient died of bleomycin toxicity. For remaining 12 patients, bleomycin was discontinued and methylprednisolone given, all showed resolution of the pneumonitis. These findings suggest that routine interim or end-of-treatment FDG-PET/CT scanning could be beneficial for alerting clinicians to asymptomatic bleomycin-induced toxicity.