Side Effects

Patients are told to be aware of the possibility of an allergic reaction. They should tell their doctors immediately if they experience rash, facial swelling or difficulty breathing during or after treatment. A mild rash can be treated. Severe rashes need to be reported. Patients will need monitoring of their blood counts. It is very likely that they will have lowered amounts of various blood cells during treatment, leading to fatigue, shortness of breath, bleeding, fever or other evidence of infection. All of these symptoms should be immediately reported to the treating doctor. If they experience fatigue, patients are warned not to drive or operate machinery. Nausea and vomiting can be treated by the doctor, as can diarrhea. There symptoms are common to alkylating agents, even though research suggests that bendamustine has different mechanistic features from other alkylating agents (which could explain its distinct clinical efficacy profile). The side effects may just be common to all alkylating chemotherapy agents.

Currently there are at least 17 clinical trials involving bendamustine. Some are using it as first-line cancer treatment, and others are using it to treat cancers that are resistant to other chemotherapeutic agents. A number of trials involve patients with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma who have failed other treatment. Bendamustine is being used with other drugs to treat metastatic breast cancer, small cell lung cancer, follicular lymphoma, other lymphomas and leukemias. These trials are going on in the United States, Canada, Japan and Europe and other countries. Many are still recruiting patients.

As these studies finish, it is likely that the FDA will approve bendamustine for other cancer treatment.