Skip Navigation



Japanese Journal of Clinical Oncology Advance Access published online on October 1, 2009
Japanese Journal of Clinical Oncology, doi:10.1093/jjco/hyp118
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
40/2/163    most recent
hyp118v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Request Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Bar-Sela, G.
Right arrow Articles by Shahar, E.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Bar-Sela, G.
Right arrow Articles by Shahar, E.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author (2009). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved

Successful Desensitization Protocol for Hypersensitivity Reaction Caused by Sunitinib in a Patient with a Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor

Gil Bar-Sela1, Eynat Kedem2, Salim Hadad3, Shimon Pollack2, Nissim Haim1, Fadi Atrash1 and Eduardo Shahar2

1 Division of Oncology, Rambam-Health Care Campus and Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology
2 Department of Immunology, Rambam-Health Care Campus and Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology
3 Pharmacy Department, Rambam-Health Care Campus and Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

For reprints and all correspondence: Gil Bar-Sela, Division of Oncology, Rambam-Health Care Campus and Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, PO Box 9602, Haifa 31096, Israel. E-mail: g_barsela{at}rambam.health.gov.il

Received April 19, 2009; accepted August 12, 2009

Sunitinib is an orally bioavailable small molecule that inhibits multiple receptor tyrosine kinases. Generalized hypersensitivity reactions (HSR) to sunitinib have not been described. A patient with a gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) who developed a type I HSR to sunitinib and who was successfully treated by drug desensitization is reported. A 51-year-old man with metastatic GIST developed a type I HSR during sunitinib treatment. Four days after treatment initiation, the patient presented to the Emergency Department with acute generalized urticaria and facial and throat swelling. Sunitinib was restarted 1 week later, using a desensitization protocol in which 10 escalating reduced doses, beginning with 0.05 mg, were given following pre-medication with prednisone and promethazine. This protocol was well tolerated and allowed us to continue the treatment, obtaining partial remission of the liver metastasis that was followed by complete resection. Sunitinib was temporarily discontinued before the operation and renewed after surgery by repeating the same desensitization procedure. At the time of this report, sunitinib has been continued for 1 year without evidence of recurrent disease. Oral desensitization appears to be an option for patients with hypersensitivity type I to sunitinib and may permit its safe administration to patients who experience HSR to this life-prolonging medication.

Key Words: sunitinib • GIST • hypersensitivity reaction • desensitization


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.