Pneumothorax triggered by the combination of gefitinib and amrubicin and treated with endobronchial silicone spigots

Fumio Imamura; Norio Okamoto; Takako Inoue; Junji Uchida; Kazumi Nishino; Madoka Kimura; Toru Kumagai; Jiro Okami

doi:10.1016/j.rmcr.2015.02.007

Pneumothorax triggered by the combination of gefitinib and amrubicin and treated with endobronchial silicone spigots

Respir Med Case Rep. 2015 May 7:15:42-4. doi: 10.1016/j.rmcr.2015.02.007. eCollection 2015.

Authors

Fumio Imamura¹, Norio Okamoto², Takako Inoue¹, Junji Uchida¹, Kazumi Nishino¹, Madoka Kimura¹, Toru Kumagai¹, Jiro Okami¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Thoracic Oncology, Osaka Medical Center for Cancer and Cardiovascular Diseases, Osaka 537-8511, Japan.
² Department of Thoracic Malignancy, Osaka Prefectural Medical Center for Respiratory and Allergic Diseases, Osaka 538-8588, Japan.

Abstract

Pneumothorax is a rare complication in cancer chemotherapy. We report a case in which a male patient with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) developed repetitive pneumothorax after receiving a combination of the chemotherapeutic drugs gefitinib and amrubicin (GEF + AMR). Both episodes of pneumothorax occurred on the 3rd day of GEF + AMR administration. Tube thoracostomy was performed, but pulmonary air leaks persisted in the second pneumothorax. Whereas surgical intervention was not applicable because of poor respiratory reserve, the chest tube was successfully removed by endoscopic occlusion of bronchopleural fistula with endobronchial Watanabe spigots (EWSs), a type of silicone bronchial blocker.

Keywords: Amrubicin; EWS; Endoscopic bronchial occlusion; Gefitinib; Pneumothorax.

Publication types

Case Reports