Because clinical trials are conducted under widely varying conditions, adverse reaction rates observed in the clinical trials of a drug cannot be directly compared to rates in the clinical trials of another drug and may not reflect the rates observed in practice.

The data described below reflect exposure to bendamustine hydrochloride in 153 patients. Bendamustine hydrochloride was studied in an active-controlled, randomized trial. The population was 45-77 years of age, 63% were male, 100% were White, and had treatment naïve CLL. All patients started the study at a dose of 100 mg/m2 intravenously over 30 minutes on Days 1 and 2 every 28 days.

Worsening hypertension was reported in 4 patients treated with bendamustine hydrochloride and in none treated with chlorambucil. Three of these 4 adverse reactions were described as a hypertensive crisis and were managed with oral medications and resolved.

The most frequent adverse reactions leading to study withdrawal for patients receiving bendamustine hydrochloride were hypersensitivity (2%) and pyrexia (1%).

Table 2 summarizes the adverse reactions that were reported in ≥ 5% of patients in either treatment group in the randomized CLL clinical study.

Hematology laboratory abnormalities are described in Table 3. Red blood cell transfusions were administered to 20% of patients receiving bendamustine hydrochloride compared with 6% of patients receiving chlorambucil. Bilirubin elevation occurred in 34% of patients, some without associated significant elevations in AST and ALT. Grade 3 or 4 increased bilirubin occurred in 3% of patients. Increases in AST and ALT of Grade 3 or 4 were limited to 1% and 3% of patients, respectively. Patients treated with bendamustine hydrochloride may also have changes in their creatinine levels.

The data described below reflect exposure to bendamustine hydrochloride in 176 patients with indolent B-cell NHL treated in two single-arm studies. The population was 31-84 years of age; 60% were male; 89% were White, 7% were Black, 3% were Hispanic, 1% were other, and <1% were Asian. These patients received bendamustine hydrochloride at a dose of 120 mg/m

The most common non-hematologic adverse reactions (≥30%) were nausea (75%), fatigue (57%), vomiting (40%), diarrhea (37%) and pyrexia (34%). The most common non-hematologic Grade 3 or 4 adverse reactions (≥5%) were fatigue (11%), febrile neutropenia (6%), and pneumonia, hypokalemia and dehydration, each reported in 5% of patients.

Hematologic toxicities, based on laboratory values and CTC grade, in patients with NHL treated in both single arm studies combined are described in Table 5. Clinically important chemistry laboratory values that were new or worsened from baseline and occurred in >1% of patients at grade 3 or 4, in patients with NHL who were treated in both single arm studies combined were hyperglycemia (3%), elevated creatinine (2%), hyponatremia (2%), and hypocalcemia (2%).

The following adverse reactions have been identified during postapproval use of bendamustine hydrochloride. Because these reactions are reported voluntarily from a population of uncertain size, it is not always possible to reliably estimate their frequency or establish a causal relationship to drug exposure.