Cerebral toxoplasmosis following etanercept treatment for idiophatic pneumonia syndrome after autologous peripheral blood progenitor cell transplantation (PBPCT).

Idiophatic pneumonia syndrome (IPS) is a term used to describe lung injury following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) without an infectious etiology. Diagnostic criteria include multilobar infiltrates on chest X-ray, clinical symptoms consistent with pneumonia and evidence of abnormal pulmonary physiology. The incidence after autologous transplantation is low (6%) but it has a high mortality (70-80%). Treatment with high-dose steroids has been used but the results are discouraging. Etanercept is a recombinant human soluble TNF receptor fusion protein that inhibits tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha) function. Recently, promising results have been obtained with etanercept for the treatment of acute and chronic GVHD after HSCT, but there is a little information regarding adverse effects. We report a case of IPS after autologous peripheral blood progenitor cell transplantation (PBPCT) successfully treated with etanercept. The patient developed cerebral toxoplasmosis immediately after etanercept treatment with a good outcome.