Table 1.

Review of the 5 cases of C. difficile colitis or pseudomembranous colitis associated with docetaxel use

	Case 1	Case 2	Case 3	Case 4	Case 5 (present case)
Age/sex, years	83/male	47/male	41/female	45/female	67/female
Diagnosis	adenocarcinoma of the pancreas	adenocarcinoma of the lung	invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast	breast cancer	extramammary Paget's disease
Chemotherapy (21-day cycles for all)	day 1 and 8: docetaxel 30 mg/m2 days 1–14: capecitabine 1,600 mg/m2	day 1: docetaxel 70 mg/m2 and carboplatin AUC 6	day 1: docetaxel 70 mg/m2 and cisplatin 70 mg/m2	day 1: docetaxel 75 mg/m2 and doxorubicin 50 mg/m2	day 1: docetaxel 75 mg/m2
Clinical presentation	severe bloody diarrhea and dehydration on cycle 1 day 8	severe bloody diarrhea, febrile neutropenia and diffuse abdominal pain on cycle 3 day 10	severe diarrhea positive for occult blood, abdominal pain and leukocytosis on cycle 2 day 9	severe watery diarrhea, vomitting, abdominal pain and neutropenic fever on cycle 1 day 6 and cycle 2 day 4	severe diarrhea positive for occult blood, abdominal pain and leukocytosis on cycle 1 day 4
Antibiotic exposure	no	no	no	unknown	cefcapene 1 week before
C. difficile toxin	negative (3 samples)	positive (2 of 3 samples)	negative (3 samples)	negative	positive (1 sample)
Endoscopic findings	pseudomembranes in the rectum, sigmoid and descending colon	pseudomembranes in the sigmoid and descending colon	moderate to severe mucosal inflammation of the sigmoid and the rectum with diffuse subepithelial hemorrhages	moderate inflamed rectal mucosa covered with pseudomembranes	not performed
Treatment	oral vancomycin	IV metronidazole and oral vancomycin	oral metronidazole	metronidazole and oral vancomycin	oral metronidazole
Outcome	symptoms resolved	symptoms resolved	symptoms resolved	symptoms resolved	symptoms resolved