Severe pulmonary toxicity in a patient treated with gemcitabine

Gemcitabine is a pyrimidine analog of deoxycytidine with activity against nonhematologic and hematologic malignancies. Its pulmonary toxicity is usually mild and self-limiting. We describe a male patient with lung cancer in whom severe dyspnea and interstitial infiltrates developed after the administration of gemcitabine.