Do you routinely recommend loratadine for pegfilgrastim pain?

Despite its popularity, there is not good evidence that Loratadine improves bone pain from pegfilgrastim. There are small, uncontrolled studies that suggest a benefit, however a randomized trial of Loratadine vs. placebo did not show a difference between groups in bone pain or quality of life.

This is a study done by our team at The University of Vermont Cancer Center, and designed by the late Dr. Steven Grunberg.

Loratadine does not improve neulasta pain.

In a practical sense, not all patients develop bone pain so not all patients need to trial anything. Also practically, in those that do develop bony pain, we have seen individual dramatic responses to anti-histamines when given the day before, day of, and day after growth factor. These individuals w...

A randomized phase II trial that randomized patients experiencing pain following GCSF to loratadine versus placebo showed no significant benefit to the use of loratadine compared to placebo. It is still a difficult problem and consequential to a group of patients. In the event that someone may be co...

Many swear by loratadine, and it is a relatively harmless intervention. Confounding most remedies is the fact that pegfilgrastim pain tends to improve with subsequent doses so it can be tough to assess what remedy works best. Some oncologists have given "reduced dose" pegfilgrastim which does cause ...