Mercaptopurine (6-MP), sold under the brand name Purinethol among others, is a medication used for cancer and autoimmune diseases. Specifically it is used to treat acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), Crohns disease, and ulcerative colitis. For acute lymphocytic leukemia it is generally used with methotrexate. It is taken by mouth.Common side effects include bone marrow suppression, liver toxicity, vomiting, and loss of appetite. Other serious side effects include an increased risk of future cancer and pancreatitis. Those with a genetic deficiency in thiopurine S-methyltransferase are at higher risk of side effects. Use in pregnancy may harm the baby. Mercaptopurine
is in the thiopurine and antimetabolite family of medications.Mercaptopurine was approved for medical use in the United States in 1953. It is on the World Health Organizations List of Essential Medicines. Medical uses
It is used to treat acute lymphocytic leukemia, Crohns disease, and ulcerative colitis. Side effects
Some of the adverse reactions of taking mercaptopurine may include diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, fatigue, stomach/abdominal pain, weakness, skin rash, darkening of the skin, and hair loss. Serious adverse reactions include mouth sores, fever, sore throat, easy bruising or bleeding, pinpoint red spots on the skin, yellowing of eyes or skin, dark urine, and painful or difficult urination. Other more serious side effects include black or tarry stools (melena), bloody stools, and bloody urine. Treatment is discontinued in up to 30% of patients due these effects but therapeutic drug monitoring of the biologically active  metabolites, i.e.
It is also recommended that, while on the drug, one should avoid those having recently received oral polio vaccine. This drug was formerly not recommended during pregnancy and early evidence indicated pregnant women on the drug (or the related azathioprine) showed a seven-fold incidence of fetal abnormalities as well as a 20-fold increase in miscarriage. There were also anecdotal reports linking mercaptopurine with spontaneous abortion, leading to the US FDA rating both AZA and mercaptopurine as category D drugs. However, Davis et al. 1999 found mercaptopurine, compared to methotrexate, was ineffective as a single-agent abortifacient; every woman in the mercaptopurine arm of the study had fetal cardiac activity at follow-up (two weeks later) and was given a suction abortion. A more recent, larger study, however, performed by the Cancers et Surrisque Associe aux Maladies inflamatoires intestinales En France (CESAME) indicated an overall rate of congenital malformations not significantly greater than the general population in France. The European Crohns and Colitis Organisation (ECCO) concluded in a consensus paper in 2010 that while AZA and mercaptopurine have an FDA rating of D, new research in both animals and humans indicates that "thiopurines are safe and well tolerated during pregnancy. "Mercaptopurine causes changes to chromosomes in animals and humans, though a study in 1990 found, "while the carcinogenic potential of 6-MP cannot be precluded, it can be only very weak or marginal." Another study in 1999 noted an increased risk of developing leukemia when taking large doses of 6-MP with other cytotoxic drugs.