Acute Tubular Necrosis and Interstitial Nephritis during Pemetrexed Therapy

We report a patient with unknown primary undifferentiated carcinoma who developed acute renal failure associated with interstitial fibrosis following pemetrexed therapy. Despite drug withdrawal, renal function remained altered and the patient experienced chronic renal insufficiency. Pemetrexed disod...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Judith Michels, Jean Philippe Spano, Isabelle Brocheriou, Gilbert Deray, David Khayat, Hassane Izzedine
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Karger Publishers 2009-03-01
Series:Case Reports in Oncology
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/208377
Description
Summary:We report a patient with unknown primary undifferentiated carcinoma who developed acute renal failure associated with interstitial fibrosis following pemetrexed therapy. Despite drug withdrawal, renal function remained altered and the patient experienced chronic renal insufficiency. Pemetrexed disodium (Alimta™) is a multitargeted antifolate agent approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for patients diagnosed with mesothelioma and non-small cell lung cancer. This drug is almost exclusively cleared by renal excretion [1]. The most common side effects are hematologic dose-limiting toxicities and nonhematologic toxicities including fatigue, diarrhea, nausea, mucositis and rash. Although few cases of renal failure have been published, no study has reported on the renal pathological findings in this setting. We present a case of acute tubular necrosis associated with interstitial fibrosis after pemetrexed therapy.
ISSN:1662-6575