Background: This study aimed to mine and compare the positive signals of adverse drug events (ADE) in paclitaxel, docetaxel, and nab-paclitaxel to evaluate the accuracy of current drug package information inserts and enable clinicians to select the appropriate treatment.
Research design and methods: ADE data reported from January 2006 to December 2020 were extracted from the Food and Drug Adverse Drug Events Reporting System (FAERS) database, and the reporting odds ratio (ROR) was used to detect the risk signals of the 3 taxanes. The definition relied on system organ class (SOCs) and preferred terms (PTs) by the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA).
Results: A total of 39,163 case reports on paclitaxel, docetaxel and nab-paclitaxel involving 25 different system organ classes (SOCs) were retrieved from the database. The ADE paclitaxel and nab-paclitaxel reports mainly focused on 'general disorders and administration site conditions' and the docetaxel ADE reports focused on 'skin and subcutaneous tissue diseases.' Among the three taxanes, nab-paclitaxel had the highest positive signal for serious adverse events.
Conclusions: Overall, the most common ADE signals and ADE mapping systems obtained in this study were consistent with the package inserts. However, some inconsistencies were noted. Further research is recommended to confirm some of the strong risk signals for ADEs for taxanes before updating the drug package information inserts.
Keywords: FAERS; Taxanes; adverse drug event; docetaxel; nab-paclitaxel; paclitaxel.