OCULAR TOXICITY FOLLOWING HIGH-DOSE CHEMOTHERAPY AND AUTOLOGOUS TRANSPLANT

A 49-year-old woman received an autologous transplant for breast cance r, Six weeks later she noticed visual disturbance of the left eye whic h correlated with a visual field abnormality, There was a milder degre e of visual disturbance in the right eye, Treatment with high-dose ste roids partially stabilized the problem, which was felt to be an ischem ic optic neuropathy, She ultimately died of respiratory failure, Patho logy of the optic nerves revealed demyelination, Visual disturbances f ollowing high-dose chemotherapy are uncommon; the pathology to date ha s not been elucidated, Steroid therapy may be useful.