Managing Toxicities Of Moxetumomab Pasudotox

At the 2019 Hairy Cell Leukemia Foundation Annual Conference, Robert J. Kreitman, MD, presented the combined findings of a phase I and phase III clinical trial of moxetumomab pasudotox associated with MRD negativity in patients with hairy cell leukemia. Findings showed that moxetumomab pasudotox was well tolerated among patients, and according to Kreitman, the drug did not show the typical toxicities associated with chemotherapy.

Kreitman, chief of the Clinical Immunotherapy Section in the Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the National Cancer Institute, had the chance to sit down with OncLive^®, a sister publication to Oncology Nursing News^®, and discuss the toxicities they did see with moxetumomab pasudotox and what nurses and physicians can do to treat them.

TRANSCRIPTION

We really don't see the chemotherapy type toxicities. One of the things that we do see is mild headache and nausea, which can occur 6 to 12 hours after each of the three doses. And this is not a really severe toxicity, but it can be a problem, if patients are not going to drink water because they're having headaches or nausea, they don't feel like drinking. We find that getting a low dose of dexamethasone just 4mg orally knocks out this toxicity very quickly.

We also make sure that patients have that are available to them. They can take it right away, and they and if they don't feel like drinking because of those two things, then they can then then they can rapidly feel better and start drinking again. Oftentimes, the patients will get low-grade fevers as well, which can make the patients dehydrated and the dexamethasone can also get rid of that.