An autopsy case of unresectable colon cancer who developed lung injury by cetuximab]

We report the case of a woman in her 60s with unresectable advanced colon cancer. After the first course of cetuximab as second-line therapy, she had developed drug-induced lung injury. Steroid pulse therapy had been ineffective, and she died of respiratory failure on day 9. The pathological examination of autopsy lung specimens revealed diffuse alveolar damage(DAD). Details of the cetuximab-induced lung injury are unclear. However, in 3 previous reports of lung injury by cetuximab, the postmortem findings were similar to this case. We concluded that DAD seems to be one of the pathological features of lung injury caused by cetuximab.