Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-1-2018
Description
Germ cell tumors (GCT) are uncommon malignancies in adult males and comprise less than 1% of male cancers. Due to highly curative nature and productive life years gained after treatment; reduction of chemotherapy related toxicities becomes vital. Cisplatin is the backbone of GCT chemotherapy, & is related to myocardial injury, thromboembolism & vasculitis. Though it should not be replaced with Carboplatin, however in certain circumstances, its use maybe unsafe; especially in cases when patient have prior myocardial infarction. We report a case of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TCM)secondary to GCT diagnosis in a young male. This patient presented withsymptoms of myocardial infarction however, coronary angiography was normal and a diagnosis of TCM was made. Though, it is rare but a unique challenge, as whether Cisplatin use would be safe in this particular scenario? On one hand patient had stress related myocardial injurywhile he was also at risk of further Cisplatin induced complications.There are no clear cut guidelines, so after informed consent his treatment regimen was modified to EC (Etoposide/Carboplatin) instead of EP (Etoposide/Cisplatin). Patient has completed 4.6 years of follow-up without any evidence of relapse. We suggest informed decisions and to weigh the pros and cons of using an inferior regimen, in order to achieve same long term prognosis while preventing any acute complications,in younger patients with curable cancers.
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Comments
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Citation Information
Hannan, Abdul; Khalid, Muhammad Faisal; and Yasmeen, Samia. 2018. Germ Cell Tumor and Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy: A Treatment Dilemma. Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences. Vol.34(4). 1030-1033. https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.344.15293 ISSN: 1682-024X
Copyright Statement
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.