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A case of bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia syndrome with preceding radiation pneumonitis after breast-conserving therapy.

Isobe K, Uno T, Kawakami H, Ueno N, Yagata H, Igarashi N, Ito H

Department of Radiology, Chiba University Hospital, Chuo-ku, Chiba 260-8670, Japan. isobeko@ho.chiba-u.ac.jp

Recent case series have demonstrated that bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia (BOOP) after radiation therapy to the breast is a distinct clinicopathological entity. Most of the investigators speculated that radiation may prime the development of BOOP through an unidentified immunological process; however, none of them showed the relationship between direct radiation injury and BOOP. We report herein a case of a 67-year-old female with BOOP following direct radiation damage confined to the irradiated area after breast-conserving therapy. This is the first case demonstrating that BOOP after breast-conserving therapy arises from direct radiation injury.

Published 10 January 2005 in Jpn J Clin Oncol, 34(12): 755-8.
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