Severe hematologic temozolomide-related toxicity and life-threatening infections

Abstract

Glioblastoma is the most frequent primary malignant brain tumor in adults. With the number of symptoms and signs, it belongs to diseases where a lot of treatment modalities are often applied. A standard treatment for patients with glioblastoma includes surgical resection followed by radiotherapy with concomitant and adjuvant temozolomide. Each type of treatment has its own toxicity. Temozolomide is an oral alkylating cytotoxic drug and like any other alkylating agent can induce side effects. Although temozolomide is generally a well tolerated drug, with rare severe toxic effects, sometimes certain toxicities can overcome the life risk of the underlying malignancy. By reviewing the literature, we have selected the cases with severe clinical presentation where some of them had a lethal outcome and we have chosen to present them in this article. In some patients with noticeable hematological toxic effects, as well as those with serious infections, attention must be paid to their treatment, as toxic effects can deepen and develop new toxicity, which all lead to a vicious circle without a favorable outcome. Preventive use of antiviral drugs should be considered before the treatment with temozolomide in patients with a positive history of viral infections such as Hepatitis B infection. In order to prevent rare but possible opportunistic infections, it is necessary to familiarize the patients with the treatment, toxicity and rare opportunistic infections. These infections can be triggered by various factors from the nearest environment, including both domestic and wild animals and pets. © 2018 Zerbinis Publications. All rights reserved.