in patients with history of cardiac diseases, and cardiac function must be monitored regularly in patients receiving thiotepa.
Caution must be used in patients with history of renal diseases and periodic monitoring of renal function should be considered during therapy with thiotepa.
Thiotepa might induce pulmonary toxicity that may be additive to the effects produced by other cytotoxic agents (busulfan, fludarabine and cyclophosphamide) (see section 4.8).
Previous brain irradiation or craniospinal irradiation may contribute to severe toxic reactions (e.g. encephalopathy).
The increased risk of a secondary malignancy with thiotepa, a known carcinogen in humans, must be explained to the patient.
Concomitant use with live attenuated vaccines (except yellow fever vaccines), phenytoin and fosphenytoin is not recommended (see section 4.5).
Thiotepa must not be concurrently administered with cyclophosphamide when both medicinal products are present in the same conditioning treatment. TEPADINA must be delivered after the completion of any cyclophosphamide infusion (see section 4.5).
During the concomitant use of thiotepa and inhibitors of CYP2B6 or CYP3A4, patients should be carefully monitored clinically (see section 4.5).
As most alkylating agents, thiotepa might impair male or female fertility. Male patients should seek for sperm cryopreservation before therapy is started and should not father a child while treated and during the year after cessation of treatment (see section 4.6).
4.5 Interaction with other medicinal products and other forms of interaction
Specific interactions with thiotepa
Live virus and bacterial vaccines must not be administered to a patient receiving an immunosuppressive chemotherapeutic agent and at least three months must elapse between discontinuation of therapy and vaccination.
Thiotepa appears to be metabolised via CYP2B6 and CYP3A4. Co-administration with inhibitors of CYP2B6 (for example clopidogrel and ticlopidine) or CYP3A4 (for example azole antifungals, macrolides like erythromycin, clarithromycin, telithromycin, and protease inhibitors) may increase the plasma concentrations of thiotepa and potentially decrease the concentrations of the active metabolite TEPA. Co-administration of inducers of cytochrome P450 (such as rifampicin, carbamazepine, phenobarbital) may increase the metabolism of thiotepa leading to increased plasma concentrations of the active metabolite. Therefore, during the concomitant use of thiotepa and these medicinal products, patients should be carefully monitored clinically.
Thiotepa is a weak inhibitor for CYP2B6, and may thereby potentially increase plasma concentrations of substances metabolised via CYP2B6, such as ifosfamide, tamoxifen, bupropion, efavirenz and cyclophosphamide. CYP2B6 catalyzes the metabolic conversion of cyclophosphamide to its active form 4-hydroxycyclophosphamide (4-OHCP) and co-administration of thiotepa may therefore lead to decreased concentrations of the active 4-OHCP. Therefore, a clinical monitoring should be exercised during the concomitant use of thiotepa and these medicinal products.
Contraindications of concomitant use
Yellow fever vaccine: risk of fatal generalized vaccine-induced disease.
More generally, live virus and bacterial vaccines must not be administered to a patient receiving an immunosuppressive chemotherapeutic agent and at least three months must elapse between discontinua |