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Help Protect Your Patient Against Infection |
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Chemotherapy is usually given in cycles, with periods of rest to give a patient's body time to regain strength and replace infection-fighting white blood cells that might have been lost during treatment. When the level of white blood cells is too low, side effects, such as infections, can result.
To help protect against infections, your patient's doctor may prescribe Neulasta®. If Neulasta® is appropriate, it should be given with every cycle of chemotherapy.
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Neulasta® helps protect by providing the following important benefits: |
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Neulasta® is a white blood cell booster, a drug that helps the body make more white blood cells to protect against infection. Neulasta® can help provide infection protection with just one dose per cycle-beginning with the first cycle of chemotherapy. In moderate risk-regimens, use of Neulasta® in the first and subsequent cycles reduced the risk of febrile neutropenia by 94%. Neulasta® may not prevent all infections.
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Neulasta® is produced using the most advanced scientific technology and works like the body's own white blood cell-stimulating factor. When a patient receives Neulasta®, it signals the bone marrow to make more white blood cells.
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Neulasta® (pegfilgrastim) is prescribed to reduce the risk of infection (initially marked by fever) in patients with some tumors receiving strong chemotherapy that decreases the number of infection-fighting white blood cells. |
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Studies have proven the effectiveness of Neulasta® in helping to protect patients
against infections with many but not all types of cancers, such as breast cancer, thoracic tumors
(including lung cancer), non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and Hodgkin's
disease.
Important product safety information
Ruptured spleen (including fatal cases), a serious lung problem called acute respiratory distress syndrome, and sickle cell crises have been reported.
Call your doctor or seek emergency care right away if you have abdominal or shoulder tip pain, shortness of breath, trouble breathing, or a fast rate
of breathing. In rare cases, serious allergic reactions can occur, causing shortness of breath, wheezing, dizziness, swelling around the mouth or eyes,
fast pulse, sweating, and hives. Sometimes these symptoms could come back within days after stopping treatment for the allergic reaction. If you start to
have any of these symptoms, call your doctor or seek emergency care right away.
In a clinical study, mild to moderate bone pain occurred in 31%
of the patients taking Neulasta® and in 26% of the patients taking a placebo injection. In most cases, bone pain was controlled with
a non-narcotic pain reliever, such as acetaminophen. Other common side effects reported by patients in the study taking either Neulasta®
or placebo were consistent with the underlying cancer diagnosis and its treatment with chemotherapy, with the exception of bone pain.
If you have any questions about this information, be sure to discuss them with your doctor. You are encouraged to report negative side effects of
prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch or call 1-800-FDA-1088.
Please refer to the Neulasta® package insert for more information.
Ask if Neulasta® is appropriate in the chemotherapy therapy treatment being discussed for your patient.
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