Caring for Yourself During Treatment
Tips for your treatment
To be active partners in your healthcare during treatments, you and your caregiver should talk to your doctor or nurse to learn more about B-CLL and Campath. Here's how you can help with your treatments:
- Take your premedications exactly as directed, both during and after Campath therapy, to help prevent infections
- Ask your doctor before taking any other medications, including over-the-counter medications such as aspirin
- Because your platelets may be temporarily reduced, avoid excess bleeding from small cuts by using an electric razor and a soft toothbrush
- Avoid contact sports and activities that could lead to injury
- Avoid any immunization with live viral vaccines while on Campath therapy. The safety of live viral vaccines with Campath has not been studied
- Wash your hands often, a simple but effective way to help reduce the risk of infection
- Avoid people with coughs, colds, or other contagious infections
- Get plenty of rest, drink lots of water, and eat healthy foods. Avoid eating the skin of fresh fruits and vegetables, and avoid unpasteurized milk, certain cheeses (ask your doctor), and undercooked meat or poultry
- Schedule regular follow-up visits with your doctor as he or she recommends, and comply with his or her requests for lab work
- Talk to your doctor and nurse before, during, and after your treatments. Ask questions and discuss your concerns. Tell them about any new symptoms or problems
What my family and/or caregiver can do to help me
Learning to live with cancer means learning many new things about the disease, treatment, and changes in your life. Family members and/or caregivers can help by listening, helping with household chores, accompanying you on doctor visits, and just spending time with you, doing things that all of you enjoy.
Campath is indicated as a single agent for the treatment of B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL).
WARNING: CYTOPENIAS, INFUSION REACTIONS, and INFECTIONS
Cytopenias: Serious, including fatal, pancytopenia/marrow hypoplasia, autoimmune idiopathic thrombocytopenia, and autoimmune hemolytic anemia can occur in patients receiving Campath. Single doses of Campath greater than 30 mg or cumulative doses greater than 90 mg per week increase the incidence of pancytopenia [see WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONS (5.1)].
Infusion Reactions: Campath administration can result in serious, including fatal, infusion reactions. Carefully monitor patients during infusions and withhold Campath for Grade 3 or 4 infusion reactions. Gradually escalate Campath to the recommended dose at the initiation of therapy and after interruption of therapy for 7 or more days [see DOSAGE AND ADMINISTRATION (2) and WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONS (5.2)].
Infections: Serious, including fatal, bacterial, viral, fungal, and protozoan infections can occur in patients receiving Campath. Administer prophylaxis against Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia (PCP) and herpes virus infections [see DOSAGE AND ADMINISTRATION (2.2) and WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONS (5.3)].
The most commonly reported adverse reactions are infusion reactions fever, chills, hypotension, urticaria, nausea, rash, tachycardia, dyspnea), cytopenias (neutropenia, lymphopenia, thrombocytopenia, anemia), and infections (CMV viremia, CMV infection, other infections). In clinical trials, the frequency of infusion reactions was highest in the first week of treatment. Other commonly reported adverse reactions include vomiting, abdominal pain, insomnia and anxiety. The most commonly reported serious adverse reactions are cytopenias, infusion reactions, and immunosuppression/infections. See "Warnings and Precautions," and "Adverse Reactions" sections of full Prescribing Information.
Please see Full Prescribing Information (PDF).
