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WARNING

NOVANTRONE® (mitoxantrone for injection concentrate) should be administered under the supervision of a physician experienced in the use of cytotoxic chemotherapy agents.

NOVANTRONE® should be given slowly into a freely flowing intravenous infusion. It must never be given subcutaneously, intramuscularly, or intra-arterially. Severe local tissue damage may occur if there is extravasation during administration. (See ADVERSE REACTIONS, General, Cutaneous and DOSAGE AND ADMINISTRATION, Preparation and Administration Precautions).

NOT FOR INTRATHECAL USE. Severe injury with permanent sequelae can result from intrathecal administration. (See WARNINGS, General)

Except for the treatment of acute nonlymphocytic leukemia, NOVANTRONE® therapy generally should not be given to patients with baseline neutrophil counts of less than 1,500 cells/mm³. In order to monitor the occurrence of bone marrow suppression, primarily neutropenia, which may be severe and result in infection, it is recommended that frequent peripheral blood cell counts be performed on all patients receiving NOVANTRONE®.

Cardiotoxicity

Congestive heart failure (CHF), potentially fatal, may occur either during therapy with NOVANTRONE® or months to years after termination of therapy. Cardiotoxicity risk increases with cumulative NOVANTRONE dose and may occur whether or not cardiac risk factors are present. Presence or history of cardiovascular disease, radiotherapy to the mediastinal/pericardial area, previous therapy with other anthracyclines or anthracenediones, or use of other cardiotoxic drugs may increase this risk. In cancer patients, the risk of symptomatic CHF was estimated to be 2.6% for patients receiving up to a cumulative dose of 140 mg/m². To mitigate the cardiotoxicity risk with NOVANTRONE, prescribers should consider the following:

All Patients

• All patients should be assessed for cardiac signs and symptoms by history, physical examination, and ECG prior to start of NOVANTRONE® therapy.
• All patients should have baseline quantitative evaluation of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) using appropriate methodology (ex. Echocardiogram, multi-gated radionuclide angiography (MUGA), MRI, etc.).

Multiple Sclerosis Patients

• MS patients with a baseline LVEF below the lower limit of normal should not be treated with NOVANTRONE®.
• MS patients should be assessed for cardiac signs and symptoms by history, physical examination and ECG prior to each dose.
• MS patients should undergo quantitative reevaluation of LVEF prior to each dose using the same methodology that was used to assess baseline LVEF. Additional doses of NOVANTRONE® should not be administered to multiple sclerosis patients who have experienced either a drop in LVEF to below the lower limit of normal or a clinically significant reduction in LVEF during NOVANTRONE® therapy.
• MS patients should not receive a cumulative NOVANTRONE dose greater than 140 mg/m².
• MS patients should undergo yearly quantitative LVEF evaluation after stopping NOVANTRONE to monitor for late occurring cardiotoxicity.

Secondary Leukemia

NOVANTRONE® therapy in patients with MS and in patients with cancer increases the risk of developing secondary acute myeloid leukemia.

For additional information, see WARNINGS and DOSAGE AND ADMINISTRATION.