Can We Predict Bleomycin Toxicity with PET-CT?

Bleomycin is an antitumor antibiotic used successfully to treat a variety of malignancies, predominantly germ cell tumors and Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL). The major limitation of bleomycin therapy is the potential for life-threatening interstitial pulmonary fibrosis. Early identification of asymptomatic patients who may develop toxicity is important. We aimed to evaluate fluorodeoxyglucose positron-emission tomography (FDG-PET/CT) findings to predict bleomycin toxicity (BT) early after chemotherapy with doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, dacarbazine (ABVD) chemotherapy before clinical symptoms and radiological changes occur.

HL patients who were treated with ABVD were evaluated. SUVmax values of lung parenchyma were analyzed in FDG-PET/CT at diagnosis and after 4 cycles of chemotherapy in all patients. At the end of the chemotherapy cycles, lung parenchymal SUVmax values of patients with BT and without BT were compared statistically.

Twenty (66.7%) male and 10 (33.3%) female patients with HL were included. Five (16.7%) HL patients developed BT. In 3 HL patients, BT was determined after 5 cycles and in 2 patients, BT was seen after 6 cycles. In all 5 of these patients with BT, FDG uptake in PET-CT was increased after 4 cycles of chemotherapy and BT was predicted before clinical and radiological findings by FDG-PET/CT. After 4 cycles of chemotherapy, lung parenchymal SUVmax of patients with BT (3.24 ± 0.76) was significantly higher than in patients without toxicity (1.84 ± 0.52) (p < 0.001). In patients with BT, a significant increase was established in lung parenchymal SUVmax after 4 cycles of chemotherapy when compared to the time of diagnosis (p = 0.043).

BT can be fatal. Early detection of BT is essential in clinical practice. FDG-PET/CT can predict BT before clinical and radiological findings occur.