Anaphylactic reaction associated with intravenous administration of folinic acid in a patient with colon cancer.

It is known that in colon cancer patients, folinic acid (FA) given intravenously (i.v.) with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) enhances the cytotoxic effects of chemotherapy. Adverse events regarding administration of FA have rarely been reported in the medical literature. A review of the existing data revealed just one case report of a colon cancer patient, who developed allergic reaction secondary to FA administration. Here, we report a second case of anaphylactic shock of an adult female patient with colon cancer at the end of i.v. FA administration. Finally the patient recovered and the reaction resolved, after she received i.v. epinephrine. Although the patient received combination chemotherapy with multiple targeted agents, which are believed to mainly cause allergic events during their iv administration, symptoms of an allergic event were shown just after FA was given; the etiology of this adverse reaction remains unclear for the time being and a challenging future field for oncologists to investigate.