Complications mimicking lupus flare-up in a uremic patient undergoing pegylated liposomal doxorubicin therapy for cervical cancer.

Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) have an increased risk for malignancy and end-stage renal disease itself might further augment the risk. Treating uremic patients with cervical cancer by cisplatin-based chemotherapy combined with radiation is hampered by the reduced renal excretion of cisplatin. Doxorubicin, a potential radiosensitizer with an established effect on carcinomas that arise in the ovary, uterine cervix and endometrium, might be applied in these cases. We describe a 36-year-old woman, who had a 9-year history of SLE and was maintained on dialysis, and who developed severe drug reaction manifesting as fever, skin rash and exfoliative dermatitis with positive lupus band test after infusion of pegylated liposomal doxorubicin therapy for advanced cervical cancer. These skin manifestations improved after i.v. methylprednisolone pulse therapy.