Dacarbazine

Dacarbazine is a prescription medication used to treat melanoma (a type of skin cancer) that has spread to other parts of your body. Dacarbazine is also used to treat Hodgkin's lymphoma (a type of cancer that begins in a type of white blood cells that normally fights infection). This medication belongs to a group of drugs called purine analogs. These work by slowing or stopping the growth of cancer cells in your body.

This medication is available in an injectable form to be given directly into a vein (IV) by a healthcare professional.

Common side effects of this medication include loss of appetite, nausea, and vomiting.

Dacarbazine is a prescription medication used to treat melanoma (a type of skin cancer) that has spread to other parts of your body. Dacarbazine is also used to treat Hodgkin's lymphoma (a type of cancer that begins in a type of white blood cells that normally fights infection).

This medication may be prescribed for other uses. Ask your doctor or pharmacist for more information.

Dacarbazine may be found in some form under the following brand names:

• DTIC-Dome

Common side effects of dacarbazine include:

• nausea
• vomiting
• loss of appetite
• diarrhea
• sores in the mouth and throat
• hair loss
• feeling of burning or tingling on the face
• flushing
• flu-like symptoms

This is not a complete list of this medication’s side effects. Ask your doctor or pharmacist for more information.

Tell your doctor if you have any side effect that bothers you or that does not go away.

Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. You may report side effects to the FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088.

No dacarbazine drug interactions have been identified. However, you should tell your doctor about all the medicines you take including prescription and non-prescription medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. Not all drug interactions are known or reported and new drug interactions are continually being reported.

Serious side effects have been reported with dacarbazine including the following:

• Dacarbazine can cause a severe decrease in the number of blood cells in your bone marrow. This may cause certain symptoms and may increase the risk that you will develop a serious infection or bleeding. If you have a low number of blood cells, your doctor may stop or delay your treatment. If you experience any of the following symptoms, call your doctor immediately: fever, sore throat, ongoing cough and congestion, or other signs of infection; unusual bleeding or bruising.
• Dacarbazine may cause serious or life-threatening liver damage. Liver damage may occur more often in people that are receiving other cancer chemotherapy drugs along with dacarbazine treatment. If you experience any of the following symptoms, call your doctor immediately: nausea, extreme tiredness, unusual bleeding or bruising, lack of energy, loss of appetite, pain in the upper right part of the stomach, or yellowing of the skin or eyes.
• Anaphylaxis (a severe type of allergic reaction) can occur following the use of dacarbazine.
• Dacarbazine may make your skin sensitive to sunlight. Plan to avoid unnecessary or prolonged exposure to sunlight and to wear protective clothing, sunglasses, and sunscreen.
• Keep all appointments with your doctor and the laboratory. Your doctor will order certain tests to check your body's response to dacarbazine.

Do not take this medication if you are allergic to dacarbazine or to any of its ingredients.

Medications can interact with certain foods. In some cases, this may be harmful and your doctor may advise you to avoid certain foods. In the case of dacarbazine, there are no specific foods that you must exclude from your diet when receiving this medication.

Before taking dacarbazine, tell your doctor about all of your medical conditions. Especially tell your doctor if you:

• are allergic to dacarbazine, any other medications, or any of the ingredients in dacarbazine injection
• have liver problems
• are pregnant or breastfeeding

Tell your doctor about all the medicines you take including prescription and non-prescription medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements.

Tell your doctor if you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant.

The FDA categorizes medications based on safety for use during pregnancy. Five categories - A, B, C, D, and X, are used to classify the possible risks to an unborn baby when a medication is taken during pregnancy.

This medication falls into category C. In animal studies, pregnant animals were given this medication and had some babies born with problems. No well-controlled studies have been done in humans. Therefore, this medication may be used if the potential benefits to the mother outweigh the potential risks to the unborn child.

Tell your doctor if you are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed.

It is not known if dacarbazine crosses into human milk. Because many medications can cross into human milk and because of the possibility for serious adverse reactions in nursing infants with use of this medication, a choice should be made whether to stop nursing or stop the use of this medication. Your doctor and you will decide if the benefits outweigh the risk of using dacarbazine.

This medication is available in an injectable form to be given directly into a vein (IV) by a healthcare professional.

This medication is available in an injectable form to be dosed by a healthcare professional.

• Malignant Melanoma
  • The recommended dosage is 2 to 4.5 mg/kg/day for 10 days.
  • Treatment may be repeated at 4 week intervals.
  • An alternative recommended dosage is 250 mg/square meter body surface/day intraveneously (into the vein) for 5 days. Treatment may be repeated every 3 weeks.
• Hodgkin's Disease
  • The recommended dosage is 150 mg/square meter body surface/day for 5 days, in combination with other effective drugs.
  • Treatment may be repeated every 4 weeks.
  • An alternative recommended dosage is 375 mg/square meter body surface on day 1, in combination with other effective drugs, to be repeated every 15 days.

If this medication is administered by a healthcare provider in a medical setting, it is unlikely that an overdose will occur. However, if overdose is suspected, seek emergency medical attention.

It is recommended that dacarbazine be administered under the supervision of a qualified physician experienced in the use of cancer chemotherapeutic agents.

1. Hemopoietic depression is the most common toxicity with dacarbazine.
2. Hepatic necrosis has been reported.
3. Studies have demonstrated this agent to have a carcinogenic and teratogenic effect when used in animals.
4. In treatment of each patient, the physician must weigh carefully the possibility of achieving therapeutic benefit against the risk of toxicity.