Severe gastrointestinal hemorrhage related to everolimus: a case report

Everolimus is an mTOR (the mammalian target of rapamycin) inhibitor, which is used for the treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma. Life-threatening hemorrhages are extremely rare adverse effect of everolimus. We herein report a successfully treated case of severe everolimus-related gastrointestinal hemorrhage by emergency surgical resection for patient with advanced renal cell carcinoma. A 72-year-old male was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma, for which everolimus was administered after unsuccessful treatment with sunitinib and sorafenib. The patient suddenly developed hematemesis 4 weeks after administration. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy showed gastric antral vascular ectasia. Once the hemorrhage was successfully cauterized by argon plasma coagulation, everolimus was discontinued. However, the patient after re-administration of everolimus developed hematemesis again and exhibited hemorrhage shock. Since therapeutic endoscopy could not achieve hemostasis, the patient underwent emergency distal gastrectomy with Billroth I reconstruction. The patient’s vital signs and hemoglobin level stabilized after the surgery. Thereafter, the patient made a satisfactory recovery, and was discharged on postoperative day 10.