Melphalan Injection
Melphalan injection should be given only under the supervision of a doctor with experience in the use of chemotherapy medications.
Melphalan can cause a severe decrease in the number of blood cells in your bone marrow. This may cause certain symptoms and may increase the risk that you will develop a serious infection or bleeding. If you experience any of the following symptoms, call your doctor immediately: fever, sore throat, ongoing cough and congestion, or other signs of infection; unusual bleeding or bruising; bloody or black, tarry stools; bloody vomit; or vomiting blood or brown material that resembles coffee grounds.
Keep all appointments with your doctor and the laboratory. Your doctor will order laboratory tests regularly before and during your treatment to see if your blood cells are affected by this drug.
Melphalan may increase the risk that you will develop other cancers. Talk with your doctor about the risks of taking melphalan.
🔔 Why is this medication prescribed?
Melphalan injection is used to treat multiple myeloma (a type of cancer of the bone marrow) in people who are unable to take melphalan by mouth. Melphalan injection is also used to destroy bone marrow and cancer cells in preparation for a bone marrow transplant in people with multiple myeloma. Melphalan is in a class of medications called alkylating agents. It works by stopping or slowing the growth of cancer cells in your body.
🔔 How should this medicine be used?
Melphalan injection comes as a powder to be mixed with liquid to be slowly injected intravenously (into a vein) over 15 to 30 minutes by a doctor or nurse in a medical facility. When melphalan injection is given to treat multiple myleoma in people who are unable to take melphalan by mouth, it is usually given once every 2 weeks for 4 doses and afterwards, once every 4 weeks for as long as your doctor recommends that you receive treatment. When melphalan is given to people with multiple myeloma to destroy bone marrow and cancer cells in preparation for a bone marrow transplant, it is usually injected once a day for 2 days before bone marrow transplant.
If your health insurer denies your claim or treatment, you have very little time to act. Appeals to Medicare must be filed within 90 days in the most lenient states, with even shorter deadlines in some states, and many insurers and healthcare providers will turn over unpaid medical bills to collection agencies after just 60 days, the AARP
Your doctor may need to delay your treatment or adjust your dose if you experience certain side effects. It is important for you to tell your doctor how you are feeling during your treatment with melphalan
Melphalan injection may cause nausea and vomiting during treatment with the medication. Your doctor may give you another medication to help prevent nausea and vomiting.
🔔 Other uses for this medicine
This medication may be prescribed for other uses; ask your doctor or pharmacist for more information.
