medwireNews: TRK inhibitor therapy has a “unique” profile of adverse events, suggests a review of lung cancer and other oncology patients attending the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, USA.
The investigators report in the Annals of Oncology that a “substantial proportion” of the 96 patients given a first- or later- generation TRK inhibitor experienced grade 1–3 weight gain (53%) and dizziness (41%), and a further 18% developed mild paresthesia.
Furthermore, 34% of the 81 patients who paused or discontinued TRK therapy reported experiencing full-body pain, muscle aches, allodynia and/or headache starting a median 2 days after treatment withdrawal.
Alexander Drilon and colleagues at the institution report that most adverse events were manageable by dose modification or pharmacologic intervention but nevertheless advise “careful monitoring” of patients during treatment.
A slow tapering schedule may also help reduce withdrawal pain during treatment discontinuation, they add.
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