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Case Reports
. 2022 Mar 16;10(8):2491-2496.
doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i8.2491.

Severe tinnitus and migraine headache in a 37-year-old woman treated with trastuzumab for breast cancer: A case report

Yong-Zhi Liu  1 , Hai Jiang  2 , Yong-Hua Zhao  2 , Qi Zhang  2 , Shi-Chao Hao  2 , Li-Ping Bao  2 , Wei Wu  2 , Zhao-Bo Jia  2 , Hui-Chuan Jiang  2
Affiliations
Case Reports

Severe tinnitus and migraine headache in a 37-year-old woman treated with trastuzumab for breast cancer: A case report

Yong-Zhi Liu et al. World J Clin Cases. .

Abstract

Background: Trastuzumab is a generally safe agent prescribed in the systemic treatment of breast cancer. Tinnitus is not a currently known adverse event related to trastuzumab. Here, we describe a rare case of severe tinnitus and a migraine headache induced by trastuzumab used for adjuvant therapy.

Case summary: A 37-year-old woman was diagnosed with hormone receptor-positive and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive breast cancer. After surgery, she was treated with four cycles of epirubicin and cyclophosphamide; she then received docetaxel and a loading dose of trastuzumab plus pertuzumab. Less than half an hour after trastuzumab infusion, the patient complained of severe tinnitus and left-sided migraine headache. Trastuzumab monotherapy was discontinued immediately, and symptoms disappeared after 10 min. Trastuzumab was readministered, and severe tinnitus and migraine headache recurred. Trastuzumab was stopped, and severe tinnitus diminished after 10 min. Pertuzumab and docetaxel therapy was then administered, and no adverse events were observed. Subsequent infusions of trastuzumab every three weeks did not show the same symptoms.

Conclusion: Although trastuzumab is well-tolerated in most patients, we should pay attention to the risk of severe tinnitus and migraine.

Keywords: Adverse effects; Breast cancer; Case report; Migraine headache; Tinnitus; Trastuzumab.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Brain magnetic resonance images of the patient. A: Axial view of T1-weighted image shows no brain dysplasia, encephalomalacia or abnormal white matter signal; B: Diffusion-weighted image shows no abnormal signals; C: T2-weighted scan shows that the bilateral internal auditory canal, cochlear, auditory and cranial nerve have no abnormal signals.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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