Bronchopleural fistula in squamous cell lung cancer following anlotinib treatment: A case report

Abstract

Anlotinib is a multi-target tyrosine kinase inhibitor and has been approved for the treatment of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer. The most common adverse events of this treatment include hypertension, fatigue, thyroid-stimulating hormone elevation, hypertriglyceridemia, hand-foot syndrome and hypercholesterolemia. The present study reported the case of a 69-year-old man with squamous cell lung cancer that experienced disease progression following first-line and second-line chemotherapy. Subsequently, anlotinib was administered as a third-line therapy. Following the second cycle of oral targeted therapy, the patient was admitted to the hospital with a one-week history of chest tightnesss, shortness of breath and cough blood-stained sputum and necrosis. Computed tomography scan showed: Bronchopleural fistula (BPF) complicating lung cancer. However, symptoms were not relieved following anti-infective treatment and the patient subsequently died of respiratory failure. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of bronchopleural fistula associated with the use of anlotinib in a patient with squamous cell lung cancer.