ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To describe our experience of administering bevacizumab doses at 0.5 mg/kg/min. The main objective of the study was to evaluate the safety of this regimen of administration. Secondary endpoints were to evaluate the cost saving and satisfaction of patients with the reduction in treatment delivery time. METHODS: The study included all patients who received bevacizumab therapy during 18 months. Time savings was calculated comparing time of normal-administration regimen (90-60-30 min) versus time with the new administration rate (0.5 mg/kg/min). Finally, importance of the reduction in the treatment delivery time for patients was surveyed. RESULTS: A total of 713 infusions (73 patients) were included in the study. Just one grade 1-HSR was observed and no high-grade HSRs occurred during the study period. The new infusion rate saved 14 980 min which means a saving of 26 940.30 (17 960.20 per year). A convenience sample of patients (25 patients) was interviewed, with an averaged in the importance of time savings by 8.8 points on the visual analogue scale. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show how this infusion rate of bevacizumab can be administered safely with benefit both for the patients and for the health systems by economic savings.
ABSTRACT
Colorectal cancer is the second most common cancer in Europe. Most antineoplastic regimens in first-line treatment involve 5-fluorouracil or oral prodrug capecitabine, combined with other antineoplastic agents such as oxaliplatin or irinotecan. It is well known that 5-fluorouracil and capecitabine are agents that can be toxic in cases of decreased dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase activity because this enzyme is the main limiting factor in the metabolism of both agents. In this paper, we describe the case of a patient who developed severe toxicity to 5-fluouracil and who had a mutation in the gene encoding the enzyme dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase.
