Pneumonia caused by crizotinib: case report and review of literature

Crizotinib is the first-line drug for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients who display anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) rearrangement. With 60% overall response rate, crizotinib significantly prolongs median progression-free survival (ranged 8-10 months) of ALK rearrangement NSCLC patients. However, there are some adverse events from crizotinib, including diarrhea, weakness and nausea. Here, we describe a 47 years old woman with ALK-rearranged NSCLC who developed interstitial pneumonia (IP) induced by crizotinib. A female patient was diagnosed as the left lower lobe adenocarcinoma stage IV (T4N2M1, pleural metastasis) via lung biopsy and was detected wild-type EGFR and 18% ALK gene rearrangement from paraffin section. However, after going through 7 cycles of chemotherapy, she rejected chemotherapy because side effect and still experienced progression of the disease. Subsequently, crizotinib was prescribed as a targeted therapy. After 32 days, visible reduction in size was observed on the pulmonary mass and metastases found in brain and liver, but the patient presented drug-induced level 4 interstitial pneumonia. In a nutshell, the curative effect of crizotinib is worthy of note, but clinicians should also weigh the advantages and disadvantages, prior its usage.