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Defibrotide in the prevention of venous irritation by vinorelbine administration
R Maisano1, V Adamo, G Toscano
1Instituto Nazionale per la Ricerca sul Cancro, Sezione di Messina, Italy.
Background:
Vinorelbine is active in a variety of malignancies. The most common side effects are leukopenia and granulocytopenia, moreover Vinorelbine is a vescicant and venous irritant, the incidence of the latter being 10-26% in patients who received VNB as a 20-30 minute peripheral infusion. To prevent venous toxicity we have carried out a study in order to evaluate the efficacy of Defibrotide in this issue.
Materials And Methods:
41 patients were enrolled in the study, the experimental schedule was: Defibrotide 400 mg on 250 cc of normal saline iv, after 15 minutes of infusion, we delivered quick, brief and repeated pulses of Vinorelbine through the plastic tube followed by remaining Defibrotide: For grading venous irritation we used the scale by Rittenberg et al.
Results:
A total of 360 infusion were delivered, the incidence of any venous irritation was 5% and maximum grade 2. No severe toxicity was recorded.
Conclusion:
These data show that Defibrotide might serve as a therapeutic drug to prevent vascular toxicity by Vinorelbine.