Sir.—Dacarbazine, an imidazole carboxamide, has been used mainly in the treatment of malignant melanoma, sarcomas, and Hodgkin's disease.1,2 It has not been used as widely in the treatment of pediatric malignancies; however, the drug has been shown to be effective in the treatment of neuroblastoma.3 Adverse effects of this drug include anorexia, nausea, vomiting, bone marrow suppression, hepatotoxicity, an influenzalike syndrome, facial flushing and parasthesia, photosensitivity reactions, and veno-occlusive disease.4,5 To our knowledge, hypersensitivity reactions have not been reported. We describe a child in whom anaphylactic shock developed while receiving dacarbazine infusion.
Patient Report.—The patient, a 3-year-old girl with widespread neuroblastoma, was hospitalized to receive chemotherapy consisting of cyclophosphamide (750 mg/m2 intravenously [IV] once on day 1), vincristine (1.5 mg/m2 IV on day 5), and dacarbazine (25 mg/m2 one-hour IV infusion on days 1 through 5). She had no known allergies. The