A new cause of renal thrombotic microangiopathy: Yttrium 90-DOTATOC internal radiotherapy

Abstract

The chelator somatostatin analogue dota-d-phe1-tyr3-octreotide (DOTATOC), which is stably labeled with the β-emitting radioisotope yttrium 90 (90Y), is used as internal radiotherapy for the treatment of patients with advanced neuroendocrine tumors. We report 5 patients who developed chronic renal failure, caused in 3 patients by biopsy-proven thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA). Twenty-nine patients (14 men, 15 women) with normal renal function before therapy were treated with divided intravenous doses of 90Y-DOTATOC approximately 6 weeks apart (mean normalized cumulative dose, 165.4 ± 36.4 mCi/m2). Twenty-two of 29 patients were administered a normalized cumulative dose of 200 mCi/m2 without side effects. Among the 7 patients (6 women, 1 man) administered a normalized cumulative dose greater than 200 mCi/m2, 5 patients (4 women, 1 man) developed renal failure. Increasing serum creatinine levels were observed within 3 months after the last 90Y-DOTATOC injection. The evolution was rapidly progressive in 3 patients, resulting in end-stage renal failure within 6 months. The remaining 2 patients developed chronic renal insufficiency (mean serum creatinine level, 300 μmol/L an average 16 months after the end of treatment). Renal biopsies performed in 3 patients showed typical signs of TMA involving glomeruli, arterioles, and small arteries. Patients treated with high-dose 90Y-DOTATOC internal radiotherapy (cumulative dose > 200 mCi/m2) are at high risk to develop severe renal failure caused by TMA lesions. The histopathologic lesions are identical to those found after external radiotherapy, which suggests a causal relationship between 90Y-DOTATOC and renal TMA.