Bleomycin: Pulmonary Toxicity

Excerpt

To the editor: In a recent issue Yagoda and colleagues (Ann Intern Med 77:861-870, 1972) present their experience with bleomycin in the treatment of 274 patients with malignant neoplasms. Their study suggests that bleomycin is useful in the management of lymphomas, particularly Hodgkin's diseases, and confirms the data reported by other groups, including ours (1, 2).

One of the untoward effects of this drug, however, is pulmonary toxicity, which may in rare instances be acute and fatal. From the data presented by the authors the exact incidence of pulmonary toxicity, assessed either clinically or proved pathologically, is difficult to determine.