Herpetic esophagitis following bendamustine-containing regimen

Abstract

Hiromichi Yamane,1 Yasumasa Monobe,2 Tomohiro Tanikawa,3 Nobuaki Ochi,1 Yoshihiro Honda,1 Hirofumi Kawamoto,3 Nagio Takigawa1 1Department of General Internal Medicine 4, 2Department of Pathology, 3Department of General Internal Medicine 2, Kawasaki Medical School, Kita-ku, Okayama, Japan Abstract: A 76-year-old Japanese woman presented to our hospital with anorexia. Two years before, she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and had received ten cycles of systemic chemotherapy. After salvage chemotherapy with bendamustine and rituximab (B–R), bone marrow suppression had lasted >3 months. Esophagogastroscopy revealed polynesic white protrusions in the mid-esophagus. These lesions were diagnosed as herpetic esophagitis. To the best of our knowledge, there is no other report in which herpetic esophagitis has been documented as an adverse event of B–R regimen. Because the complication could cause symptomatic gastrointestinal discomfort, physicians should be aware of this disease. Keywords: bendamustine, herpetic esophagitis, immunodeficiency, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, rituximab

Keywords

• bendamustine
• herpetic esophagitis
• immunodeficiency
• non-Hodgkin's lymphoma
• rituximab