Chemotherapy-induced lung disease

The lung has significant susceptibility to injury from a variety of chemotherapeutic agents. The clinician must be familiar with classic chemotherapeutic agents with well-described pulmonary toxicities and also must be vigilant that a host of new agents may exert emerging adverse effects on lung function. The diagnosis of chemotherapy-associated lung disease remains an exclusionary process, particularly with respect to usual and atypical infections as well as recurrence of the underlying neoplastic process in these immunocompromised patients. In many instances, chemotherapy-associated lung disease may respond to withdrawal of the offending agent and to the judicious application of corticosteroid therapy in selected patients.