We were able to make confirmation today that Exjade did in fact interact with mom’s neupogen and keep it from working. After stopping the Exjade and waiting, then retesting mom had neuts today. We’ve been working on testing this out in several ways over the past few weeks.
So the warning is – if you are on either an EPO or a GCSF (procrit, aranesp, neupogen, neulasta) there is the liklihood that the Exjade will render those drugs useless thereby lowering counts. Keep an eye on your reds and whites if you’re taking Exjade. For now, mom is off of it and we are considering desferal via her picc line 3x’s a week or we may just forget it and do nothing at this point. We’ll make that decision next tuesday.
If you have already noticed this issue with Exjade and any of the above drugs please contact Novartis and tell them. I posted a number earlier and now I can’t find the post???? Looks like it might have been deleted??? Our doctor has also been talking to Novartis about this. It’s very important that they know what’s going on since this drug was not tested for leukemia/MDS patients as well as not being tested on anyone over 65.
patti
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