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A Case Report

ROBERT A. O'ROURKE, MD; GERALD E. ECKERT, MD

Arch Intern Med. 1964;113(2):191-194.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

In 1948 methotrexate, a folic acid antagonist, was introduced by Farber and his associates as a chemotherapeutic agent for the treatment of leukemia.¹ Since that time many clinical and experimental studies have shown the folic acid antagonist to be of variable benefit in the treatment of a number of neoplasms,^2-7 as well as the epidermal hyperplastic disorder, psoriasis.⁸

The folic acid antagonists have produced undesirable side effects in many cases because of a narrow margin of safety between therapeutic and toxic dosages. Anemia, leukopenia, thrombocytopenia, stomatitis, and gastrointestinal ulcerations have been reported following this mode of therapy.^{1,2,4,9,10,12}

Skin rashes, alopecia, and erythrocytic macrocytosis with a megaloblastic bone marrow have also occurred.^1,2,11,12

A rare complication following treatment with folic acid antagonists is periportal fibrosis of the liver. In 1955 Colsky reported the occurrence of hepatic fibrosis in children with acute leukemia, following treatment with methotrexate. . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
WASHINGTON, DC

From the Department of Medicine, Georgetown University Medical School and the Georgetown University Hospital.

Footnotes
Received for publication June 21, 1963; accepted Sept 6.

Senior Assistant Resident, Department of Medicine, Georgetown University Hospital (Dr. O'-Rourke); former Fellow in Gastroenterology, Georgetown University Hospital (Dr. Eckert).

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