Side Effects of Mitomycin
Mitomycin has U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved indications for slowing the growth of cancerous tumors in the linings of the stomach and pancreas when used in conjunction with other chemotherapy drugs. The antibiotic can also help patients with rectal, bladder, skin, breast, and cervical and lung cancer, proving especially good at reducing the pain people with advanced cancers experience. While effective, mitomycin can cause many serious side effects such as dangerously low blood cell counts and potentially fatal infections.
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Bone Marrow Toxicity
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Within two months of starting therapy with mitomycin, 65 percent of patients develop clinically significant decreases in red and white blood cell counts. The conditions, known respectively as thrombocytopenia and leukopenia, occur because mitomycin has a toxic effect on bone marrow. When a majority of patients receive injections of mitomycin, their bone marrow begins dying off, and not enough red and white blood cells get produced to replace those that get eliminated through the natural course of blood metabolism. Blood cell counts decrease progressively as mitomycin administration increases, and about 25 percent of patients who develop thrombocytopenia or leukopenia after receiving mitomycin do not recover from the condition.
Other Toxicities
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The prescribing information for mitomycin identifies several toxicities for the medication. More than 25 percent of mitomycin-treated patients develop the hemoglobin irregularities that can lead to fatal anemia, and 4 percent of patients receiving mitomycin contract the life-threatening inflammatory infections of the skin and mucous membranes known as cellulitis and stomatitis. An unknown percentage of patients receiving mitomycin have experienced serious breathing problems due to lung toxicity or heart failure due to cardiac toxicity. About 2 percent of patients have had kidney damage from mitomycin.
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Common Physical Side Effects
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Beyond the toxicities, mitomycin frequently causes nausea, vomiting, fever and complete loss of appetite.
Rarer Physical Side Effects
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Patients receiving mitomycin injections have also reported blurred vision, diarrhea, fainting, headache, fatigue and swelling of their hands and feet.
Warnings and Precautions
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A boxed warning at the top of mitomycin's prescribing information states that patients should only receive injections of the medication while "under the supervision of a qualified physician experienced in the use of cancer chemotherapeutic agents." This close monitoring is necessary because of the medication's high likelihood for inducing thrombocytopenia and leukopenia and also because patients can develop sudden and severe bronchospasms during the course of the injection. Doctors should continue to monitor patients' health after stopping treatment with mitomycin because kidney toxicities and complications such as fibrous growths in internal organs can occur well after mitomycin injections have ceased.
Available Products
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Bristol-Myers Squibb sells mitomycin under the brand name of Mutamycin. Generic versions of mitomycin are also sold by Accord Healthcare, Baxter Healthcare and Bedford Laboratories.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
