Open AccessFatal hemorrhage in a patient with advanced soft tissue sarcoma following radiation and pazopanib treatment: A case report
Author(s) -
Kenta Kawasaki,
Yasuo Hamamoto,
Junichi Fukada,
Masayuki Adachi,
Hidenao Sasaki,
Hiromasa Takaishi,
Kazunari Yoshida,
Takanori Kanai
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
oncology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.766
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1792-1082
pISSN - 1792-1074
DOI - 10.3892/ol.2016.4246
Subject(s) - pazopanib , soft tissue sarcoma , medicine , radiation therapy , sarcoma , cancer , oncology , soft tissue , oncogene , cancer research , radiology , pathology , cell cycle , sunitinib
A 71-year-old Japanese woman presented to the Department of Neurosurgery of Keio University School of Medicine (Tokyo, Japan) with a leiomyosarcoma originating in the infratemporal fossa and an 85-mm metastasis to the right lung. Since the pulmonary lesion was associated with risk of airway obstruction, radiation therapy (50 Gy/20 fractions) was administered to the patient, which resulted in remarkable tumor shrinkage. Subsequently, the patient was administered 800 mg/day pazopanib for 10 weeks, which resulted in further reduction in tumor size. However, the patient succumbed to a massive hemorrhage of sudden onset. Three possible explanations for the fatal hemorrhage are: i) adverse reaction to pazopanib; ii) side effects of radiation; and iii) remarkable tumor shrinkage. As a result, it may be proposed that the synergic effects of the aforementioned hypotheses may have been responsible for the bleeding observed in the present case. Therefore, clinicians should be alert to the possibility of this adverse event. In the present study, the first case of mortality due to massive hemorrhage following remarkable tumor shrinkage induced by radiation therapy and subsequent pazopanib treatment is reported.