Possible Teratogenic Effect of Chlorambucil on a Human Fetus

THE EFFECTS OF SODIUM AMINOPTERIN, 1 and more recently, of thalidomide, 2 on the human fetus, when administered to the mother during early pregnancy, have stressed the necessity of carefully checking all drugs for teratogenic properties. Since it is desirable that any suspicions of this nature should be reported, the following case is felt worthy of mention. It concerns the possible teratogenic effect of chlorambucil on a human fetus removed from a mother receiving this drug for the treatment of Hodgkin's diseae. Report of a Case A 27-year-old married white woman was diagnosed as suffering from Hodgkin's paragranuloma after a biopsy of a left supraclavicular lymph node in the Lynchburg General Hospital in February, 1958. Since then her illness has been characterized by fever, generalized adenopathy, pulmonary infiltration, hepatosplenomegaly, anemia, lymphopenia, and weight loss, although the degree of each of these symptoms has varied from time to time. She was