A 61-year-old male presented with cough and progressive dyspnea, when investigated further was diagnosed to have interstitial lung disease (ILD). His past history revealed 16 cycles of adriamycin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine chemotherapy regimen given for his Stage 4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma a year back. Since the patient had a history of bleomycin intake, subsequently developed dyspnea, and there were no respiratory symptoms previously, it is suggestive of bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis. He was started on antifibrotics to halt the process of fibrosis but still landed up in respiratory failure. This patient was completely cured of Hodgkin’s lymphoma but developed ILD due to bleomycin. Since bleomycin is known to cause pulmonary toxicity, its use should be rationale, and continuous monitoring throughout the therapy is important since the disease becomes irreversible once the fibrosis had occurred.
Priyadarsini et al. (Mon,) studied this question.