Dasatinib Side Effects

Serious Adverse Side Effects

Sprycel | Dasatinib has many serious adverse side effects associated with it, such as:

Cardiovascular side effects like congestive heart failure, pericardial effusion (fluid around the heart), and prolonged QT intervals (a kind of prolonged heartbeat)
Gastrointestinal side effects like gastrointestinal hemorrhage (loss of blood in the gastrointestinal tract) and hemorrhagic colitis (a type of gastroenteritis, or stomach flu)
Hematological side effects like anemia, bleeding, febrile neutropenia (a development of fever in patients with neutropenia, or abnormally low amount of white blood cells), neutropenia, and thrombocytopenia, or low platelet count
Hepatic side effects like ALT/SGPT, serum bilirubin and AST/SGOT (enzymes in the liver) levels raised, ascites (a serious form of liver disease), and hepatitis
Immunological side effects like infectious diseases
Neurological side effects like stroke
Renal side effects like serum creatinine (a breakdown product of creatine) raised
Respiratory side effects like pleural effusion (fluid in the chest), pneumonia, pulmonary edema (lung congestion), and pulmonary hypertension (high blood pressure in the lungs)

Common Adverse Side Effects

Sprycel | Dasatinib has more common and less severe adverse side effects, such as:

Cardiovascular side effects like body fluid retention, and localized edema (fluid accumulation)
Dermatological side effects like rash
Endocrine metabolic side effects like hypocalcaemia (low amounts of calcium in the blood), hypokalemia (low amount of potassium in the blood), and hypophosphatemia (low blood phosphate)
Gastrointestinal side effects like as abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting
Hematological side effects like myelosuppression (decrease in ability for bone marrow to produce blood cells)
Musculoskeletal side effects like muscle pain
Neurological side effects like headache
Respiratory side effects like shortness of breath
Other side effects like fatigue and fever

Warnings & Recalls for Dasatinib

Contraindications

There have not been any confirmed contraindications to this drug.

Who Should Not Take This Drug

The following patients with these preexisting conditions should never consider taking this drug:

Patients with heart issues
Patients who concurrently use H2-receptor antagonists or proton pump inhibitors
Patients who concurrently use strong CYP3A4 inducers
Patients who concurrently use antacids
Elderly patients
Patients with prolonged QT intervals
Patients are encouraged not to use this drug for more than one year

Pregnancy Warning

Sprycel | Dasatinib has a pregnancy category of “D” by the FDA, therefore extreme caution should be used when taking this drug, as fetal risk has been observed. Patients should determine if the benefits of taking Dasatinib outweigh the risks with a physician.

Dasatinib Treatment and Use

Sprycel | Dasatinib is a drug that’s marketed by Bristol-Myers Squibb prescribed to treat chronic myeloid leukemia, a disease where the bone marrow makes too many white blood cells. It is worth noting that previously this drug used to be known as BMS-354825. This drug comes in pill form.

There are no off-label uses for this drug, so the FDA-labeled uses for this drug include:

Accelerated phase chronic myeloid leukemia which is resistant or intolerable to prior therapy
Acute lymphoid leukemia (Philadelphia Chromosome-Positive) which is resistant or intolerable to prior therapy
Blastic phase chronic myeloid leukemia
Chronic phase chronic myeloid leukemia (newly diagnosed)

In the year 2008, Sprycel | Dasatinib had a revenue of $310 million in sales.

How This Drug Works

Sprycel | Dasatinib is known to be an inhibitor of multiple tyrosine kinases that are indicated for the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia in patients who are resistant or intolerant to prior therapy. Sprycel | Dasatinib suppresses the growth and the proliferation of leukemic cell lines over-expressing BCR-ABL and also inhibits alternate signaling pathways involving SRC family kinases.

Dosage Information

The dosage information of Sprycel | Dasatinib largely depends upon which particular form of chronic myeloid leukemia the patient is diagnosed with.

For accelerated phase chronic myeloid leukemia, 140mg orally once a day with or without food which can be increased to 180mg in patients who don’t achieve hematological or cytogenetic response
For acute lymphoid leukemia (Philadelphia Chromosome-Positive), 140mg orally once a day with or without food which can be increased to 180mg in patients who don’t achieve hematological or cytogenetic response
For blastic phase chronic myeloid leukemia, 140mg orally once a day with or without food which can be increased to 180mg in patients who don’t achieve hematological or cytogenetic response
For chronic phase chronic myeloid leukemia (newly diagnosed), 140mg orally once a day with or without food which can be increased to 180mg in patients who don’t achieve hematological or cytogenetic response