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Although the potential for bleomycin-related pulmonary toxicity in the management of patients with germ cell cancer (GCC) has been appreciated for more than 5 decades, the scope of the problem is not well documented.
To examine this issue, Danish investigators analyzed data on 565 GCC patients (median age, 32 years) who underwent pulmonary function testing before, during, and for up to 5 years after treatment with bleomycin, etoposide, and cisplatin (BEP) chemotherapy. Of these patients, 24% had lung metastases, 25% underwent surgery after chemotherapy, and more than 50% had smoked. The researchers also compared long-term pulmonary toxicity in this cohort with surveillance data from the Danish National Patient Registry. Approximately 9% disc…