ARTERIAL-OCCLUSION IN PATIENTS WITH PERIPHERAL VASCULAR-DISEASE TREATED WITH PLATINUM-BASED REGIMENS FOR LUNG-CANCER

Background: Patients with cancer may be hypercoagulable, and smoking c an cause both lung cancer and peripheral vascular disease. Cisplatin-b ased chemotherapy has been reported to cause a variety of vascular sid e effects, Case reports: Five patients with bronchogenic carcinoma and peripheral vascular disease developed acute arterial occlusion soon a fter receiving a combination of cisplatin or carboplatin plus etoposid e. All these patients had risk factors for atherosclerosis and three o f them had preexisting known peripheral vascular disease. Conclusions: The occurrence of acute arterial occlusion soon after initiation of c hemotherapy suggests that it might have been a complication of this th erapy. Hence, caution should be exercised when using platinum-based (a nd other?) chemotherapy in patients with known moderate or severe peri pheral vascular disease.