Fatal Poisoning With Podophyllum Resin

To the Editor:— I read with interest the communication, "Podophyllum Resin Poisoning With Complete Recovery" ( JAMA 189: 639 [Aug 24] 1964), by Balucani and Zellers. Their case being only the fifth case of podophyllum resin poisoning in the literature, I would like to report a short history of another, this one a legal matter for which all records were sent to me by the Turkish health authorities. The patient was a 45-year-old woman with a Krukenberg tumor of the ovary. The entire abdomen was infiltrated by metastases and the tumor was considered inoperable. To test the antitumoral effect of podophyllum resin, the physician in charge injected intravenously 6 ml of a podophyllum resin solution (1.5 gm of podophyllum resin in 100 ml of alcohol). The patient died a short time later. She had received 90 mg of podophyllum resin, and chemical analysis showed that this amount of the resin contains