Gemcitabine, with brand names including Gemzar, is a chemotherapy medication. It treats cancers including testicular cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, and bladder cancer. It is administered by intravenous infusion. It acts against neoplastic growth, and it inhibits the replication of Orthohepevirus A, the causative agent of Hepatitis E, through upregulation of interferon signaling.Common side effects include bone marrow suppression, liver and kidney problems, nausea, fever, rash, shortness of breath, mouth sores, diarrhea, neuropathy, and hair loss. Use during pregnancy will likely result in fetal harm. Gemcitabine is in the nucleoside analog family of medication. It works by blocking the creation of new DNA, which results in cell death.Gemcitabine was patented in 1983 and was approved for medical use in 1995. Generic versions were introduced in Europe in 2009 and in the US in 2010. It is on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines. Medical uses
Gemcitabine treats various carcinomas. It is used as a first-line treatment alone for pancreatic cancer, and in combination with cisplatin for advanced or metastatic bladder cancer and advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. It is used as a second-line treatment in combination with carboplatin for ovarian cancer and in combination with paclitaxel for breast cancer that is metastatic or cannot be surgically removed.It is commonly used off-label to treat cholangiocarcinoma and other biliary tract cancers.It is given by intravenous infusion at a chemotherapy clinic. Contraindications and interactions
Taking gemcitabine can also affect fertility in men and women, sex life, and menstruation.
Women taking gemcitabine should not become pregnant, and pregnant and breastfeeding women should not take it.As of 2014, drug interactions had not been studied. Adverse effects
Gemcitabine is a chemotherapy drug that works by killing any cells that are dividing. Cancer cells divide rapidly and so are targeted at higher rates by gemcitabine, but many essential cells also divide rapidly, including cells in skin, the scalp, the stomach lining, and bone marrow, resulting in adverse effects. : 265 The gemcitabine label carries warnings that it can suppress bone marrow function and cause loss of white blood cells, loss of platelets, and loss of red blood cells, and that it should be used carefully in people with liver, kidney, or cardiovascular disorders. People taking it should not take live vaccines. The warning label also states it may cause posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome, that it may cause capillary leak syndrome, that it may cause severe lung conditions like pulmonary edema, pneumonia, and adult respiratory distress syndrome, and that it may harm sperm.More than 10% of users develop adverse effects, including difficulty breathing, low white and red blood cells counts, low platelet counts, vomiting and nausea, elevated transaminases, rashes and itchy skin, hair loss, blood and protein in urine, flu-like symptoms, and edema.Common adverse effects (occurring in 1–10% of users) include fever, loss of appetite, headache, difficulty sleeping, tiredness, cough, runny nose, diarrhea, mouth and lip sores, sweating, back pain, and muscle pain.Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) is a rare but serious side effect that been associated with particular chemotherapy medications including gemcitabine.