Ifosfamide/cyclofosfamide-induced methemoglobinemia in pediatric patients with hemoblastoses

Rare side effects of already known chemotherapy drugs are a difficult case for clinician. In this article, there is a description of 15 cases of the development of methemoglobinemia after the use of ifosfamide and cyclophosphamide in the therapy of acute lymphoblastic leukemia and Burkitt lymphoma. And when ifosfamide-induced methemoglobinemia is already described in the world literature as a form of isolated cases, cyclophosphamide-induced one is presented for the first time in this article in our (domestic) clinical practice. Both pathophysiological basis and inducer drugs are described in the article in detail. Special attention is paid to hereditary variants of methemoglobinemia and to possible combinations of hereditary and drug-induced variants. Clinical and laboratory criteria for the methemoglobinemia diagnosis and corresponding treatment recommendations are provided by the authors.