Acute transient parotitis after high dose etoposide and autologous bone marrow transplantation.

Etoposide is an important component of several intensive therapy regimens in allogeneic and autologous bone marrow transplantation for advanced hematologic malignancies. We observed the occurrence of transient acute parotid and submandibular sialoadenitis in nine of 19 patients receiving high dose etoposide and melphalan followed by autologous bone marrow rescue. Manifestations included pain, tenderness and swelling of the parotid and submandibular glands. Symptoms arose 4-16 h after completion of etoposide infusion and resolved within 72 h. Elevation of serum amylase accompanied the symptoms, and was also observed in some patients who were asymptomatic. Discomfort was controlled with analgesics and the clinical course was uncomplicated in all cases. Transient parotitis is a relatively frequent and benign complication of high dose etoposide therapy.