Related Experiment Videos
Gangrene of the fingertips after bleomycin and methotrexate
O Correia1, F Ribas, R Azevedo
1Department of Dermatology, Instituto Português de Oncologia, Porto, Portugal.
Cutis
|December 8, 2000
Abstract:
The increased use of cytostatic drugs, which are sometimes used in combination chemotherapy, may result in new and unusual cutaneous side effects. We describe a 57-year-old man with acral erythrocyanosis progressing to acute digital ischemia and gangrene that developed after combined chemotherapy (bleomycin and methotrexate) used to treat a metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the hypopharynx. A leukocytoclastic vasculitis was found in both the acute phase and in the amputated fingertips. This supports the well-reported potential of bleomycin to trigger acral vascular toxicity.