Radiation recall dermatitis with soft tissue necrosis following pemetrexed therapy: a case report

IntroductionRadiation recall dermatitis is a well known but still poorly understood inflammatory reaction. It can develop in previously irradiated areas and has been shown to be triggered by a variety of different drugs, including cytostatic agents.

Pemetrexed may cause radiation recall dermatitis in pre-irradiated patients.Case presentationWe present the case of a 49-year-old Caucasian woman with non-small cell lung cancer who was initially treated with carboplatin and paclitaxel concomitant with radiotherapy after suffering a painful plexus brachialis infiltration. Due to disease progression, a second-line treatment with pemetrexed was started.

A severe soft tissue necrosis developed despite steroid treatment and plastic surgery.

Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, we present the first case of a patient with severe soft tissue necrosis in a pre-irradiated area after pemetrexed therapy. We believe that physicians treating patients with pemetrexed should be aware of the severe, possibly life-threatening effects that may be induced by pemetrexed after previous radiation therapy.

Author: Christian SpirigAurelius OmlinGiannicola D'AddarioKlaus-Dieter LoskePhilipp EsenweinJan GeismarThomas Ruhstaller
Credits/Source: Journal of Medical Case Reports 2009, 3:93

Published on: 2009-11-02

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