Because clinical trials are conducted under widely varying conditions, adverse reaction rates observed in the clinical trials of a drug cannot be directly compared with rates in the clinical trials of another drug and may not reflect the rates observed in practice.
Ovarian Cancer
Table 1 shows the Grade 3/4 hematologic and major non‑hematologic adverse reactions in the topotecan/paclitaxel comparator trial in ovarian cancer.
Table 1. Adverse Reactions Experienced by ≥5% of Ovarian Cancer Patients Randomized to Receive HYCAMTIN or Paclitaxel
Adverse Reaction | HYCAMTIN (n = 112) | Paclitaxel (n = 114) |
Hematologic Grade 3/4 | % | % |
Grade 4 neutropenia (<500 cells/mm3) | 80 | 21 |
Grade 3/4 anemia (Hgb <8 g/dL) | 41 | 6 |
Grade 4 thrombocytopenia (<25,000 plts/mm3) | 27 | 3 |
Febrile neutropenia | 23 | 4 |
Non-hematologic Grade 3/4 | % | % |
Infections and infestations | | |
Sepsisa | 5 | 2 |
Respiratory, thoracic, and mediastinal disorders | | |
Dyspnea | 6 | 5 |
Gastrointestinal disorders | | |
Abdominal pain | 5 | 4 |
Constipation | 5 | 0 |
Diarrhea | 6 | 1 |
Intestinal obstruction | 5 | 4 |
Nausea | 10 | 2 |
Vomiting | 10 | 3 |
General disorders and administrative site conditions | | |
Fatigue | 7 | 6 |
Asthenia | 5 | 3 |
Painb | 5 | 7 |
a Death related to sepsis occurred in 2% of patients receiving HYCAMTIN and 0% of patients receiving paclitaxel.
b Pain includes body pain, skeletal pain, and back pain.
Small Cell Lung Cancer
Table 2 shows the Grade 3/4 hematologic and major non‑hematologic adverse reactions in the topotecan/CAV (cyclophosphamide‑doxorubicin‑vincristine) comparator trial in small cell lung cancer.
Table 2. Adverse Reactions Experienced by ≥5% of Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients Randomized to Receive HYCAMTIN or CAV
Adverse Reaction | HYCAMTIN (n = 107) | CAV (n = 104) |
Hematologic Grade 3/4 | % | % |
Grade 4 neutropenia (<500 cells/mm3) | 70 | 72 |
Grade 3/4 anemia (Hgb <8 g/dL) | 42 | 20 |
Grade 4 thrombocytopenia (<25,000 plts/mm3) | 29 | 5 |
Febrile neutropenia | 28 | 26 |
Non-hematologic Grade 3/4 | % | % |
Infections and infestations | | |
Sepsis a | 5 | 5 |
Respiratory, thoracic, and mediastinal disorders | | |
Dyspnea | 9 | 14 |
Pneumonia | 8 | 6 |
Gastrointestinal disorders | | |
Abdominal pain | 6 | 4 |
Nausea | 8 | 6 |
General disorders and administrative site conditions | | |
Fatigue | 6 | 10 |
Asthenia | 9 | 7 |
Pain b | 5 | 7 |
a Death related to sepsis occurred in 3% of patients receiving HYCAMTIN and 1% of patients receiving CAV.
b Pain includes body pain, skeletal pain, and back pain.
Hepatobiliary Disorders in Ovarian and Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients Receiving HYCAMTIN: Based on the combined experience of 453 patients with metastatic ovarian carcinoma, and 426 patients with small cell lung cancer treated with HYCAMTIN, Grade 1 transient elevations in hepatic enzymes occurred in 8% of patients. Grade 3/4 elevations occurred in 4%. Grade 3/4 elevated bilirubin occurred in less than 2% of patients.
Cervical Cancer
In the comparative trial with HYCAMTIN plus cisplatin versus cisplatin in patients with cervical cancer, the most common dose-limiting adverse reaction was myelosuppression. Table 3 shows the hematologic and non‑hematologic adverse reactions in patients with cervical cancer.
Table 3. Adverse Reactions Experienced by ≥5% of Patients with Cervical Cancer Randomized to Receive HYCAMTIN plus Cisplatin or Cisplatin Monotherapy (Between-Arm Difference ≥2%)a
Adverse Reaction | HYCAMTIN plus Cisplatin (n = 140) % | Cisplatin (n = 144) % |
Hematologic | | |
Neutropenia | | |
Grade 3 (<1,000-500 cells/mm3) | 26 | 1 |
Grade 4 (<500 cells/mm3) | 48 | 1 |
Anemia | | |
Grade 3 (Hgb <8-6.5 g/dL) | 34 | 19 |
Grade 4 (Hgb <6.5 g/dL) | 6 | 3 |
Thrombocytopenia | | |
Grade 3 (<50,000-10,000 cells/mm3) | 26 | 3 |
Grade 4 (<10,000 cells/mm3) | 7 | 0 |
Non-hematologicb, c | | |
General disorders and administrative site conditions | | |
Constitutionald | 69 | 62 |
Paine | 59 | 50 |
Gastrointestinal disorders | | |
Vomiting | 40 | 37 |
Stomatitis-pharyngitis | 6 | 0 |
Other | 63 | 56 |
Dermatologyf | 48 | 20 |
Infection-febrile neutropeniaf | 28 | 18 |
Cardiovascularf | 25 | 15 |
a Includes patients who were eligible and treated.
b Data were collected using NCI Common Toxicity Criteria, v. 2.0.
c Grades 1 through 4 only. There were 3 patients who experienced deaths with investigator-designated attribution. The first patient experienced a Grade 5 hemorrhage in which the drug-related thrombocytopenia aggravated the event. A second patient experienced bowel obstruction, cardiac arrest, pleural effusion, and respiratory failure which were not treatment-related but probably aggravated by treatment. A third patient experienced a pulmonary embolism and adult respiratory distress syndrome; the latter was indirectly treatment-related.
d Constitutional includes fatigue (lethargy, malaise, asthenia), fever (in the absence of neutropenia), rigors, chills, sweating, and weight gain or loss.
e Pain includes abdominal pain or cramping, arthralgia, bone pain, chest pain (non-cardiac and non-pleuritic), dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia, earache, headache, hepatic pain, myalgia, neuropathic pain, pain due to radiation, pelvic pain, pleuritic pain, rectal or perirectal pain, and tumor pain.
f High-level terms were included if the between-arm difference was ≥10%.