Neutropenic enterocolitis and docetaxel neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

Neutropenic enterocolitis (NE, typhlitis) is a rare complication of intensive chemotherapy, and though it is more often observed in leukemia and lymphoma, there are a few reported cases of patients with lung cancer [1], hormone-refractory prostate cancer [2] and metastatic breast cancer [3]. Docetaxel, a taxane-based compound, has been proven to be a very effective treatment with acceptable toxicity in breast cancer [4]; it also increases the efficiency of neoadjuvant therapy when combined with doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide (AC) [5]. We report here a unique case of NE in a young, healthy patient with locally advanced breast cancer who received such a regimen.