A Descriptive Analysis of Post-Chemotherapy Development of Interstitial Lung Disease Using Spontaneous Reporting Data in Japan

This descriptive study used the Japanese spontaneous reporting data to investigate the time taken (TTILD) to development of interstitial lung disease (ILD) after initiation of chemotherapy and the death rates attributed in part to post-chemotherapy ILD (i.e., DR) for anticancer drugs. We evaluated TTILD and DR endpoints for 36 anticancer drugs, which are widely used for treating 11 solid and 3 hematological cancers, and are suspected of causing ILD, by using 8- year spontaneous reporting data recording for 2,553 patients in the reporting system of the relevant Japanese regulatory agency. The median TTILD and overall DR attributable to post-chemotherapy ILD for the drugs were 1.8 months and 29%, respectively. For most drugs, the median TTILDs were between 1 to 4 months, and the DRs attributable to postchemotherapy ILD were <40%; however, TTILDs were as long as 4 to 6 months and DRs attributable to postchemotherapy ILD were ≥40% for several other drugs. Of the 36 drugs, we identified those that may trigger postchemotherapy late-onset ILDs or result in high DRs. The anticancer drugs that may have triggered late-onset ILDs were defined as those that caused ILD development after approximately 4 months from the initial drug administration.