Question about Rituxan

sharann, BSN, RN · Dec 25, 2004

I will check on this and get back to you. My dad is getting this for his NHL. The main problems are reactions such as fever, hypotension and allergic rxn. Did you check the website? My guess is that Rituxan doesn't cause as much problem with the H/H as the other meds(its a biological as you know Im sure)

sharann, BSN, RN · Dec 25, 2004

http://www.rituxan.com/rituxan/pi/

This is the website. Blood dyscrasias are a potential problem but the white counts seem to be more likely than anemia. They also talk about hepatic occurences and cardiac events. They monitor pts closely especially the 1st doses(my dad had 600cc's over 8 hours).

dphrn · Dec 25, 2004

Thanks for the website Sharann. It doesn't look as though decreased H&H are of great concern. We had a patient whose H&H was low, so it was held. I couldn't find much info on it. Thanks for your help.

scooterRN52 · Jan 6, 2005

I know the side effects to look for while infusing Rituxan. My question is how does it effect the red count (H&H) after the infusion? Does it lower it as much as some other chemotherapy drugs or less? I can't find too much information regarding the red count and Rituxan.
Thanks for any info you guys can give me.

According to the literature that I have in the springhouse drug handbook for nurses it says:Obtain regular CBC, may decrease, hemoglobin and WBC,

platelet and neutrophil counts. Other side effects include:leukopenia,thrombocytopenia,neutropenia, anemia. Decreased calcium, increased LDH.

I've only seen this drug given a few times, because I'm on a surgical

telemetry unit We don't give too much chemo. But I'm in a cancer center, so

all my pts. have cancer. We have specific chemotherapy drugbooks at work which I will check. If you go to medscape.com you might be able to get more info.

scooterRN52