According to a new study published in the journal Clinical Drug Investigation, researchers in China have found that the administration of ramucirumab to patients with cancer is associated with an increased risk of hypertension.

For the meta-analysis, researchers identified 11 studies that included a total of 3,851 patients with various cancers in order to investigate the overall risk of hypertension in patients treated with ramucirumab.

Results showed that the overall incidence of all-grade hypertension was 20.0% (95% CI: 15.0-26.0) and an overall incidence of high-grade hypertension of 8.6% (95% CI: 6.3-11.7).


Continue Reading

Researchers found that the risk of developing hypertension was higher in patients treated with ramucirumab (RR for all grades = 2.77; 95% CI: 1.94-3.94; P < 0.001, RR for high-grade = 3.58; 95% CI: 2.45-5.23; P < 0.001).

RELATED: Prophylactic Effect of Urea-Based Cream on Sorafenib-Associated Hand-Foot Skin Reactions

Ramucirumab, a novel antiangiogenic agent, is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a single agent or in combination with paclitaxel, for the treatment of patients with advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma experienced disease progression on or after prior fluoropyrimidine- or platinum-containing chemotherapy, and in combination with docetaxel for the treatment of patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer who experienced disease progression on or after platinum-based chemotherapy. Ramucirumab was initially approved by the U.S. FDA in 2014.

References

  1. Wang, et al. Incidence and risk of hypertension with ramucirumab in cancer patients: a meta-analysis of published studies. Clin Drug Investig. 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40261-015-0272-z.