Case report: clozapine given in the context of chemotherapy for lung cancer

Despite the frequent use of the antipsychotic medication, clozapine, in chronic treatments of psychiatric patients, there is limited clinical evidence available to guide clinicians in the problematic situation of a chemotherapy-induced blood dyscrasia.

To perform a literature review and add a case report to the available clinical evidence.

We gathered evidence through literature searches on Medline and with the assistance of a medical information specialist from Novartis who searched their internal database. We also report the case of a patient maintained on clozapine treatment despite full-dose chemotherapy (cisplatin and etoposide) for an extensive lung cancer.

The searches returned seven clinically relevant references. These references do not establish a synergistic effect of clozapine and chemotherapy on blood counts. However, it has been shown that clozapine exposure activates common apoptotic pathways shared with anticancer drugs.

Although the meagre clinical evidence precludes drawing any general conclusion as to the safety of maintaining clozapine administration during chemotherapy, it does not point to an obvious worsening of the haematological outcomes.