Case Report

Organizing Pneumonia in a Patient with Myelodysplastic Syndrome Who was Treated with Azacitidine

Masahiro Manabe^1*, Gakuya Tamagaki², Yuji Hagiwara³, Reiko Asada³, Dai Momose¹, Yasuyoshi Sugano¹, Yuko Kuwae⁴ and Ki-Ryang Koh^1
1Department of Hematology, Osaka General Hospital of West Japan Railway Company, Japan
²Department of Respiratory Medicine, Osaka General Hospital of West Japan Railway Company, Japan
³Department of Clinical Laboratory, Osaka General Hospital of West Japan Railway Company, Japan
⁴Department of Pathology, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka City University, Japan

^*Corresponding author: Masahiro Manabe, Department of Hematology, Osaka General Hospital of West Japan Railway Company, Japan

Published: 03 Dec, 2017
Cite this article as: Manabe M, Tamagaki G, Hagiwara Y, Asada R, Momose D, Sugano Y, et al. Organizing Pneumonia in a Patient with Myelodysplastic Syndrome Who was Treated with Azacitidine. Clin Oncol. 2017; 2: 1378.

Case Presentation

A 75-year-old male was referred to our hospital due to anemia. His blood data showed a hemoglobin concentration of 5.7g/dL, and a white blood cell count of 2300/μL (blasts: 16.5%). A bone marrow aspiration showed trilineage dysplasia and a blast count of 13.0%. The patient was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome with excess blasts-2. He was started on azacitidine monotherapy. Three weeks after the initiation of the third course of treatment, he presented with a fever, dry cough, and dyspnea on effort. Computed tomography revealed bilateral interstitial infiltrates (Figure 1), and spirometry tests demonstrated a markedly restrictive pattern. He underwent a transbronchial lung biopsy, which revealed organizing lesions (Figure 2). A pathological diagnosis of organizing pneumonia was made. Although it seems to be a very rare complication, it is important for hematologists to be aware that interstitial lung disease can occur as an adverse event of azacitidine use.

Figure 1

Figure 2