Platinum agent-induced hypersensitivity reactions: data mining of the public version of the FDA adverse event reporting system, AERS.

Objective: Adverse event reports (AERs) submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) were reviewed to confirm the platinum agent-associated mild, severe, and lethal hypersensitivity reactions.

Methods: Authorized pharmacovigilance tools were used for quantitative signal detection, including the proportional reporting ratio, the reporting odds ratio, the information component given by a Bayesian confidence propagation neural network, and the empirical Bayes geometric mean. Excess2, given by the multi-item gamma Poisson Shrinker algorithm, was used to evaluate the effects of dexamethasone and diphenhydramine on oxaliplatin-induced hypersensitivity reactions.

Results: Based on 1,644,220 AERs from 2004 to 2009, carboplatin and oxaliplatin proved to cause mild, severe, and lethal hypersensitivity reactions, whereas cisplatin did not. Dexamethasone affected oxaliplatin-induced mild hypersensitivity reactions, but had lesser effects on severe and lethal reactions. The effects of diphenhydramine were not confirmed.

Conclusion: The FDA's adverse event reporting system, AERS, with optimized data mining tools is useful to authorize potential associations between platinum agents and hypersensitivity reactions.