Leustatin

Leustatin is a prescription medication used to treat hairy cell leukemia, a type of white blood cell cancer. Leustatin belongs to a group of drugs called purine analogs. These work by stopping or slowing the growth of cancer cells.

This medication is available in an injectable form to be given directly into a vein (IV) by a healthcare professional.

Common side effects include fever, infection, nausea, and tiredness.

Leustatin is a prescription medication used to treat hairy cell leukemia, a type of white blood cell cancer.

This medication may be prescribed for other uses. Ask your doctor or pharmacist for more information.

This medication is available in an injectable form to be dosed by a healthcare professional.

The recommended dose of Leustatin is 0.09 mg/kg to be infused into the vein over 24 hours. This is repeated daily for a total of 7 consecutive days.

Leustatin use can lead to serious side effects.

• Leustatin may cause a severe decrease in the number of all types of blood cells in your blood. This may cause certain symptoms and may increase the risk that you will develop a serious infection or bleeding. If you experience any of the following symptoms, call your doctor immediately: fever, sore throat, chills, or other signs of infection; unusual bleeding or bruising; black and tarry stools; red blood in stools; bloody vomit; or vomited material that looks like coffee grounds.
• Leustatin may cause severe nerve damage. Nerve damage may occur more than one month after Leustatin injection is given. If you experience any of the following symptoms, call your doctor immediately: pain, burning, numbness, or tingling in the hands or feet; weakness in the arms or legs; or loss of ability to move your arms or legs.
• Keep all appointments with your doctor and the laboratory. Your doctor will order certain tests before, during, and after treatment to check your body's response to Leustatin.

Do not take this medication if you are allergic to Leustatin or to any of its ingredients.

Common side effects include:

• fever
• infection
• fatigue
• nausea
• rash
• headache
• injection site reactions

This is not a complete list of this medication’s side effects. Ask your doctor or pharmacist for more information.

Tell your doctor if you have any side effect that bothers you or that does not go away.

Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. You may report side effects to the FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088.

Tell your doctor about all the medicines you take, including prescription and non-prescription medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. Especially tell your doctor if you take:

• aminoglycoside antibiotics such as amikacin (Amikin), gentamicin (Garamycin), or tobramycin (Tobi, Nebcin)
• amphotericin B (Amphotec, Fungizone)
• angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors such as benazepril (Lotensin), captopril (Capoten), enalapril (Vasotec), fosinopril (Monopril), lisinopril (Prinivil, Zestril), moexipril (Univasc), perindopril (Aceon), quinapril (Accupril), ramipril (Altace), and trandolapril (Mavik
• nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications such as diclofenac (Cataflam, Voltaren), naproxen (Aleve, Naprosyn), and sulindac (Clinoril)
• immunosuppressants such as azathioprine (Imuran), cyclosporine (Neoral, Sandimmune), methotrexate (Rheumatrex), sirolimus (Rapamune), and tacrolimus (Prograf)

This is not a complete list of Leustatin drug interactions. Ask your doctor or pharmacist for more information.

Tell your doctor if you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant.

The FDA categorizes medications based on safety for use during pregnancy. Five categories - A, B, C, D, and X, are used to classify the possible risks to an unborn baby when a medication is taken during pregnancy.

This medication falls into category D. In animal studies, pregnant animals were given this medication and had some babies born with problems. No well-controlled studies have been done in humans. Therefore, this medication may be used if the potential benefits to the mother outweigh the potential risks to the unborn child. Avoid pregnancy while prescribed Leustatin.

Tell your doctor if you are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed.

It is not known if Leustatin crosses into human milk. Because many medications can cross into human milk and because of the possibility for serious adverse reactions in nursing infants with use of this medication, a choice should be made whether to stop nursing or stop the use of this medication. Your doctor and you will decide if the benefits outweigh the risk of using Leustatin.