Abstract

Despite the increasing incidence of cancers in elderly people, this population remains under-represented in clinical trials. As a result, data describing the safety and efficacy of protein kinase inhibitors (PKIs) specifically in older patients with cancer are lacking. Advanced age may have a significant impact on drug pharmacology, but data on PKI safety in older patients remain poorly described in "real life". We performed an observational study describing adverse drug reactions (ADRs) related to PKIs and compared the results for younger and older (aged ≥ 75years) patients. We extracted all notifications considered to be related to PKIs from our regional pharmacovigilance database between March 2003 and November 2015. Information about patients, drug exposure, and ADRs were captured. After a descriptive analysis of ADRs, we compared their characteristics between older and younger patients. In total, 214 patients experienced 320 ADRs related to PKIs. Slightly over half the patients were male (57%). The mean age was 64.1years (range 15-90), and 52 (24.3%) patients were aged ≥ 75years. Cutaneous reactions were the most frequently reported ADRs (22.9%), followed by gastrointestinal (16.8%) and respiratory (12.1%) ADRs. The most often involved PKIs were imatinib [54 patients (25.2%)], dasatinib [25 (11.7%)], sunitinib [25 (11.7%)], erlotinib [25 (11.7%)], and sorafenib [24 (11.2%)], followed by vemurafenib [17 (7.9%)] and everolimus and nilotinib, with 11 patients (5.1%) each. These drugs were administered mostly for three therapeutic indications: chronic myeloid leukemia [56 patients (26.2%)], malignant urinary tract cancer [31 (14.5%)], and bronchial cancer [27 (12.6%)]. Comparison of PKI-related ADRs between older and younger patients showed no significant difference, except for the mean number of coadministered drugs (5.3 vs. 4.2; p = 0.03) and the proportion of vascular ADRs (17.3 vs. 4.3%; p = 0.005), mainly arterial hypertension, which were both significantly more frequent in the older group. Our work showed that PKI-related ADRs in older patients were similar to those in younger adults, except for vascular ADRs, which were significantly more frequent in the older population. Our results require confirmation by larger studies but could lead physicians to be more vigilant about cardiovascular comorbidities during initiation of PKIs in elderly people.

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.