Etoposide as Salvage Therapy for Cytokine Storm Due to Coronavirus Disease 2019

Maulin Patel; Eduardo Dominguez; Daniel Sacher; Parag Desai; Ashwin Chandar; Michael Bromberg; Roberto Caricchio; Gerard J Criner; Temple University COVID-19 Research Group

doi:10.1016/j.chest.2020.09.077

Etoposide as Salvage Therapy for Cytokine Storm Due to Coronavirus Disease 2019

Chest. 2021 Jan;159(1):e7-e11. doi: 10.1016/j.chest.2020.09.077. Epub 2020 Sep 12.

Authors

Maulin Patel¹, Eduardo Dominguez², Daniel Sacher², Parag Desai², Ashwin Chandar³, Michael Bromberg³, Roberto Caricchio⁴, Gerard J Criner²; Temple University COVID-19 Research Group

Affiliations

¹ Department of Thoracic Medicine and Surgery, Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA. Electronic address: maulin.patel@tuhs.temple.edu.
² Department of Thoracic Medicine and Surgery, Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA.
³ Department of Hematology and Oncology, Temple University Hospital, Philadelphia, PA.
⁴ Department of Rheumatology, Temple University Hospital, Philadelphia, PA.

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has resulted in significant morbidity and mortality because of a lack of effective therapies. Therapeutic strategies under investigation target the overactive cytokine response with anti-cytokine or immunomodulators therapies. We present a unique case of severe cytokine storm resistant to multiple anti-cytokine therapies, but eventually responsive to etoposide. Thus, etoposide may have a role as salvage therapy in treatment of cytokine storm in COVID-19. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of use of etoposide in COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; etoposide.

Publication types

Case Reports

MeSH terms

Aged
COVID-19 / complications*
Cytokine Release Syndrome / drug therapy*
Cytokine Release Syndrome / etiology*
Etoposide / therapeutic use*
Female
Humans
Salvage Therapy / methods
Severity of Illness Index

Substances

Etoposide