A Most Irregular Threat: Old Gas Regulators Can Present Mercury Exposure

How nephrotoxic is carboplatin? Sir-The study by Sleijfer et al. (1989) reports on a significant deterioration in renal function following moderate dose carboplatin-with a 19% reduction in glomerular filtration rate. This raises reservations about the claimed advantages of carboplatin over cisplatin and suggests that not only is close monitoring of renal function necessary, but also that hyperhydration regimens should be considered. Should this be true, one of the major benefits of carboplatin, namely its convenient administration at standard dose in an outpatient setting, would disappear. We have reviewed the data on 28 patients given high dose carboplatin as a single agent for ovarian cancer in whom sequential glomerular filtration rate (GFR) assessments were determined before, during and after carboplatin therapy.