The cancer-treatment drug Avastin has been linked to two cases of flesh-eating disease, including one death, Health Canada said today.
The agency issued a warning in conjunction with the drug's manufacturer, Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., echoing an earlier one from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It offered no specific details on the two Canadian cases.
Anyone taking Avastin who notices unusual signs or symptoms should contact their health-care professional immediately. (CBC) Avastin is used either alone to treat a particular type of brain cancer (glioblastoma), or in combination with chemotherapy to treat cancers that have spread to other parts of the body such as colon, rectal and lung cancer.
"Roche has conducted a comprehensive safety review that has identified 52 serious case reports of necrotizing fasciitis that occurred between November 1997 and September 2012, worldwide," the company said in a letter to health-care professionals posted on Health Canada's website.
"Two of these reports occurred in Canada. A total of 17 of the global cases reported a fatal outcome, including one Canadian death."
The agency said that necrotizing fasciitis is a severe, fast-moving and life-threatening bacterial infection of the skin and soft tissue. It can be brought on by a number of conditions and is the disease that threatened the life of former Quebec premier Lucien Bouchard in the early 1990s.
The FDA issued a similar warning in mid-March, indicating that cases have mainly been seen in people who had wound-healing complications, gastrointestinal perforations or fistulas.
Symptoms can develop rapidly, sometimes within 24 hours of a minor skin injury or surgical wound, Health Canada said.
Symptoms include sudden, severe pain in the affected area, fever, redness, heat, swelling or fluid-filled blisters in the skin, scaling, peeling, or discoloured skin over the affected area.
The warning says that anyone taking Avastin who develops these symptoms or notices other unusual signs or symptoms should contact their health-care professional immediately.
People who have diabetes or cancer have a greater risk of developing necrotizing fasciitis because their immune systems are lowered by those diseases.
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