Fatal veno-occlusive disease of the liver following high-dose 1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea (BCNU) and autologous bone marrow transplantation.

Veno-occlusive disease of the liver has recently been reported to occur in patients receiving multiagent chemotherapy together with total-body irradiation and bone marrow transplantation for malignancies. Reported is a case of a 22-year-old woman with disseminated diffuse histiocytic lymphoma in whom fatal hepatic veno-occlusive disease developed two and one-half weeks following high-dose 1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea) (BCNU) therapy and autologous bone marrow transplantation. This appears to be the first report of this entity in association with high-dose BCNU employed as a single chemotherapeutic agent.