Bevacizumab + sunitinib: microangiopathic haemolytic anaemia. A serious drug interaction between 2 cancer drugs.

摘要

In July 2008, several drug regulatory agencies warned against using beva-cizumab in combination with sunitinib, via a letter from the pharmaceutical company Roche (1,2). In a study including 25 patients with metastatic kidney cancer, 5 of the 12 patients who received both beva-cizumab and sunitinib developed microan-giopathic haemolytic anaemia. This type of anaemia with thrombocytopenia is secondary to thrombotic lesions in small blood vessels and to other mechanical causes. Two patients developed severe hypertension and encephalopathy. The symptoms regressed within 3 weeks after discontinuation of the cancer drugs. Two other cases were observed in a different trial.