[A case of recurrent Helicobacter cinaedi-associated bacteremia in a small cell lung cancer patient during chemotherapy].

ABSTRACT

A 46-year-old man was admitted to our hospital, because of cough and exertional dyspnea. We diagnosed small cell lung cancer, clinically staged as T2N3M0, limited disease. Radiation therapy was performed at first to relieve the severe stenosis of the proximal airway, followed by anti-cancer chemotherapy. Fever developed on the fifth day of chemotherapy, and he was successfully treated with intravenous antibiotics. A blood culture yielded Helicobacter cinaedi on the seventh day of incubation. H. cinaedi bacteremia occurred again during the second course of chemotherapy. The same bacteria were also found in his intestinal contents, with no gastrointestinal symptoms. We assume that the bacteria found in the blood was derived from his own intestinal contents. When bacteremia occurs in lung cancer patients during chemotherapy, an uncommon strain such as H. cinaedi is a possible causative agent.