Clinical Pharmacology & Biopharmaceutics
Open Access

Abstract

Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) is one of the most common malignancies. Vincristine (VCR) is widely used in the treatment of ALL worldwide. Its antineoplastic effect may be accompanied by dose and duration of treatment dependent neurological side effects, with most symptoms disappearing by about the sixth week after discontinuation of therapy. Azole antifungals are commonly used as prophylaxis therapy in such treatment regimens. Posaconazole (PSZ), a structural analogue of itraconazole, is a new triazole antifungal agent that has been approved for the prophylaxis of invasive Aspergillus and Candida infections in severely immunocompromised patients. Those immunocompromised patients include those with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation with graft-versus-host disease or hematologic malignancies with prolonged neutropenia from chemotherapy. PSZ has been used for this indication since 2005 in several countries. Co-administration of azoles (as prophylaxis or treatment of fungal infections) and VCR have been shown to increase VCR neurotoxic effects due to the inhibition of cytochrome P450 (CYP) isoform 3A4, for which VCR is a substrate. Concomitant disease conditions were shown to possibly alter the pharmacokinetic (PK), pharmacodynamic and toxicodynamic properties of drugs. Therefore, it is important to test the effect of alteration in PSZ PK and/or its drug interaction with VCR that accompany those concomitant disease conditions. The impact on the clinical decisions needs to be also considered.

Biography

Dalia A Hamdy completed her PhD in Pharmacokinetics at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Alberta (Canada) in September 2010. Prior to this, she obtained Master of Pharmaceutical Sciences degree (Pharmaceutical Analytical Chemistry) at Alexandria University (Egypt) and BSc degree (Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences) at the same Institution. She is a Licensed Clinical Pharmacist in Egypt and in Alberta, Canada. Her research interests are in the fields of pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, drug metabolism, pharmaceutical analysis and pharmaceutical education. She has published 18 papers and 29 posters. She holds several grants and has served as Reviewer and Editorial Board Member.

Email: dr.daliahamdy@gmail.com