Gemcitabine pulmonary toxicity

INTRODUCTION: Bevacizumab and gemcitabine are key drugs for treating recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer. However, information about the combination of bevacizumab and gemcitabine is insufficient. We conducted a phase II study to assess the feasibility, clinical activity, and toxicity of this combination chemotherapy. METHODS: This study included women with platinum-resistant recurrent epithelial ovarian, primary peritoneal, or fallopian tube cancer who received one to three regimens of platinum-based chemotherapy between April 1, 2015 and December 31, 2018...

BACKGROUND: Both gemcitabine and bendamustine have been evaluated in patients with recurrent/refractory Hodgkin lymphoma but to the authors' knowledge not as a doublet. The authors completed a phase 1/2 trial to identify the optimal dose and frequency of administration and to assess the efficacy of this combination in patients with recurrent/refractory Hodgkin lymphoma. METHODS: Patients were treated up to a maximum dose of gemcitabine (1000 mg/m2 on day 1) and bendamustine (120 mg/m2 on days 1 and 2), which was determined to be the recommended phase 2 dose, administered every 21 days for up to 6 cycles...

Gemcitabine is widely utilized in the treatment of pancreatic, ovarian, and non small cell lung cancers. Gemcitabine is associated with a wide spectrum of lung toxicities, ranging from dyspnea 25% of patients to severe pulmonary toxicity in up to 5% of patients. There is a dearth of information specific to pulmonary toxicity in the setting of gemcitabine combination chemotherapy. Given the potential severity, it is important to identify it early by excluding more common etiologies. We share two case reports of patients with pancreatic cancer who developed severe pulmonary toxicity during gemcitabine combination chemotherapy...

Background In pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), the chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 2 (CCL2)/chemokine (C-C motif) receptor 2 (CCR2) axis plays a key role in immunosuppressive properties of the tumor microenvironment, patient prognosis, and chemoresistance. This phase Ib study assessed the effects of the orally administered CCR2 inhibitor PF-04136309 in combination with nab-paclitaxel and gemcitabine in patients with previously untreated metastatic PDAC. Methods Patients received PF-04136309 twice daily (BID) continuously plus nab-paclitaxel (125 mg/m2 ) and gemcitabine (1000 mg/m2 ) administered on days 1, 8, and 15 of each 28-day cycle...

Gemcitabine (Gem) as an anti-cancer agent has been limited by its short circulation time and rapid metabolism that reflects in low tumor uptake and low therapeutic efficiency. To improve its anti-tumor activity, a novel FAPα enzyme-activated prodrug of Z-GP-Gem modified at 4-amino group of Gem was developed, which could effectively release parent Gem based on the specific cleavage via FAPα enzyme-activation in tumor microenvironment. Compared to Gem, the Z-GP-Gem prodrug exhibited significantly enhanced inhibition of both tumor growth and pulmonary metastasis in BALB/c mice bearing orthotopic breast 4T1 tumors...

LESSONS LEARNED: The combination of bevacizumab with docetaxel-gemcitabine resulted in unacceptable toxicity, particularly a high rate of pulmonary toxicity (30%).Despite promising efficacy, excessive toxicity of this regimen does not support its use in patients with advanced nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer. BACKGROUND: Prior to immunotherapy, standard treatment for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) was platinum doublet chemotherapy. In a previous phase II study, docetaxel-gemcitabine demonstrated comparable efficacy and tolerability to platinum doublets...

RATIONALE: Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma (MPM) is rare cancer and has a poor prognosis with resistance to chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Until now there is no standard third-line treatment for patients who have failed second-line therapy. PATIENT CONCERNS: A 58-year-old non-smoking female peasant of ethnic Han was admitted to the oncology department of the 363 Hospital with a primary complaint of chest tightness and breathlessness from 3 months ago. DIAGNOSES: Positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET/CT) examination showed "dirty" pleural and parietal pleural involvement as well as mediastinal and pulmonary hilar lymph node enlargement...

BACKGROUND: The combination of gemcitabine and docetaxel (GT) has been demonstrated to be effective against various types of solid tumors, including sarcoma. However, the regimen has not been confirmed in large, well-designed clinical trials in refractory metastatic osteosarcoma. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the records of patients with refractory metastatic osteosarcoma at Peking University People's Hospital who were treated with gemcitabine (1000 mg/m2 ) intravenously (IV) on Day 1 and Day 8, and docetaxel (75 mg/m2 ) IV on Day 8, repeated every 21 days...

Brentuximab vedotin (Bv) is becoming increasingly important in the treatment of Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), with improved outcomes and an overall favourable toxicity profile. However, Bv is associated with severe pulmonary toxicity when combined with bleomycin, suggesting that additive toxicity may be an important consideration. Furthermore, little has been published on tolerability in paediatric patients. We retrospectively evaluated the occurrence of pulmonary toxicity of Bv in 19 paediatric and young adult patients with relapsed or refractory HL...

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Traditional chemotherapy causes serious toxicity due to the wide bodily distribution of these drugs. Curcumin is a potential anticancer agent but its low water solubility, poor bioavailability and rapid metabolism significantly limits clinical applications. Here we developed a liposomal curcumin dry powder inhaler (LCD) for inhalation treatment of primary lung cancer. LCDs were obtained from curcumin liposomes after freeze-drying. The LCDs had a mass mean aerodynamic diameter of 5...

For advanced non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), although platinum/pemetrexed is known to result in a longer survival compared with other regimens, the outcome in the adjuvant setting is still unknown. In this study, the difference of the disease-free survival (DFS) between lung adenocarcinoma patients treated with platinum/pemetrexed and with other platinum-based doublets was concerned. A total of 389 radically resected lung adenocarcinoma patients received adjuvant chemotherapy with platinum/pemetrexed chemotherapy (Group A, n = 143) or other third generation platinum-based regimens (Group B, n = 246) were analyzed in terms of DFS...

In our aging population the incidence of cancer is increasing in the elderly. We are thus facing a new challenge especially considering incidence of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in this patients population. Overall survival of cancer patients has significantly improved therefore cancer has become in many cases a chronic disease. We are about to be treating patients who either may develop a new CVD or their current CVD may deteriorate. Cancer can cause various cardiovascular conditions locally (pressure in mediastinum, effusions) or systemically (increased risk of pulmonary embolism, arrhythmias, carcinoid heart disease)...

Leiomyosarcomas represent the most common variant of uterine sarcomas, and are also considered to be the least chemosensitive. To date, adriamycin and ifosfamide are believed to be the most effective drugs for its treatment, in addition to docetaxel and gemcitabine. Recently, the introduction of trabectedin has provided clinicians with another treatment option, and the drug may have some benefits for patients as it may allow for long-term treatment. We present the case of a patient who previously failed multiple cycles of chemotherapy and who was subsequently treated with 30 cycles of trabectedin as third-line therapy for multiple metastases of uterine leiomyosarcoma...

BACKGROUND: Gemcitabine is currently the standard chemotherapy for the adjuvant treatment of pancreatic cancer. This chemotherapeutic agent is generally well-tolerated, myelosuppression and gastrointestinal toxicity being common side effects. Nevertheless, gemcitabine-induced pulmonary toxicity has been rarely reported. Despite its low incidence, the spectrum of pulmonary injury is wide, including potentially fatal conditions. We report a case of acute interstitial pneumonia related to gemcitabine, completely solved with Imatinib Mesylate (IM)...

Forty patients (median age, 31 years; range, 20 to 63) with Hodgkin lymphoma underwent an allogeneic stem cell transplant with the gemcitabine-fludarabine-melphalan reduced-intensity conditioning regimen. Thirty-one patients (77%) had undergone a prior autologous stem cell transplant, with a median time to progression after transplant of 6 months (range, 1 to 68). Disease status at transplant was complete remission/complete remission, undetermined (n = 23; 57%), partial remission (n = 14; 35%), and other (n = 3; 8%)...

Pseudomyogenic hemangioendothelioma (PMH) is a recently described, indolent vascular tumor that usually presents in the distal extremities. PMH typically has a multi-focal presentation and can involve several tissue planes including the dermis, subcutis, muscle, and bone. This soft tissue tumor predominantly affects men between 20 and 50 years of age. PMH tumors typically are resected but frequently recur locally; thus, more efficacious treatment options are needed. Herein, we report two cases of patients with PMH who were treated with systemic therapy...

Pulmonary drug delivery system facilitates local instillation of anticancer drugs to lungs which has proven to be pioneering approach for treatment of lung cancer. This approach led the groundwork for delivering liposomal formulation directly to lungs. Gemcitabine-HCl is currently considered as most effective drug for management of lung cancer. However, its application is limited owing to its metabolism by enzymes present in plasma resulting in reduced efficacy and higher toxicity. In present study, lyophilisation technique was used to convert liposomes into dry powder inhaler, which was formulated using emulsification solvent evaporation technique...

INTRODUCTION: Gemcitabine is a chemotherapeutic agent frequently used by for the treatment of several malignancies both in the adjuvant and metastatic setting. Although myelosuppression is the most adverse event of this therapy, gemcitabine might induce severe pulmonary toxicities. We describe a case of pulmonary veno-occlusive disease (PVOD) related to gemcitabine. CASE PRESENTATION: The patient was an 83-year-old man with a metastatic pancreatic cancer who was treated by gemcitabine as first-line therapy...

BACKGROUND: High-dose chemotherapy (HDC) using sequential cycles of carboplatin/etoposide is curative for relapsed germ-cell tumors (GCT). However, outcomes of high-risk patients in advanced relapse remain poor. We previously developed a new HDC regimen combining infusional gemcitabine with docetaxel/melphalan/carboplatin (GemDMC), with preliminary high activity in refractory GCT. Given the high vascular endothelial growth factor expression in metastatic GCT and the synergy between bevacizumab and chemotherapy, we studied concurrent bevacizumab and sequential HDC using GemDMC and ifosfamide/carboplatin/etoposide (ICE) in patients with poor-risk relapsed or refractory disease...

The combination of erlotinib and gemcitabine is a recognized option for patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer whose common adverse events such as skin rash, diarrhea, or fatigue are usually easily manageable. Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a life-threatening toxicity reported in patients with non-small-cell lung cancers treated with epidermal growth factor receptor-tyrosine kinase inhibitors or gemcitabine. This side effect is extremely rare in patients with pancreatic cancer. We report fatal treatment-related ILD that occurred in a 67-year-old patient with metastatic pancreatic cancer...