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Eye inflammation (anterior uveitis) from Velcade?

by KMZ on Sun Dec 27, 2015 8:20 am

My mom has a condition called anterior uveitis – also known as iritis – in both her eyes, but more in the right. She has seen about 3 eye doctors so far, has been given lots of medication, but the condition did not improve. Her eyes are always red, dry, and some mild pain.

With the last doctor seen her, she was given full background of her multiple myeloma history. She is relating it to the treatment she was taking (Velcade). She also said the cause of this is internal – she named it autoimmune disease, wherein immune system starts damaging the body organs (something like that).

I am really confused. Has anybody came across such situation? Below is a report from her current doctor.

EyeExamReport.png
EyeExamReport.png (80.34 KiB) Viewed 1567 times

KMZ
Who do you know with myeloma?: Mother
When were you/they diagnosed?: June 2013
Age at diagnosis: 76

Re: Eye inflammation (anterior uveitis) from Velcade?

by ByYourSide on Mon Jan 04, 2016 7:53 pm

My husband had eye troubles while on Velcade; his eyes were teary and he developed red­ness around the eyelids and a chalazion. Our myeloma specialist called it "Velcade eyes," and she prescribed erythromycin ointment for the eyelids, 2x/day, for a month. He was also instructed to wash his eyelids a few times a day (I bought Sterilid eyewash) and to use warm compresses.

Talk with your myeloma specialist; we also had seen our ophthalmologist with this problem and he wanted to surgically remove the chalazion and gave him a prescription eyedrop which didn't work. We like our eye doc but feel that the myeloma specialist is the better choice to seek treatment. They are well versed in the types of chemo and side effects and may have come across similar symptoms in other patients.

ByYourSide
Name: Susan
Who do you know with myeloma?: Husband
When were you/they diagnosed?: December 2014
Age at diagnosis: 65

Re: Eye inflammation (anterior uveitis) from Velcade?

by KarenaD on Thu Mar 03, 2016 12:01 pm

I have experienced escalating eye irritation issues (redness, swelling, itchiness) while on Velcade. This appears to be a fairly common side effect of this drug, though underreported:

S Puri et al, "Ocular Complications of Bortezomib Therapy in Multiple Myeloma," Blood, Dec 6, 2014 (abstract)

I finished my final induction cycle of CyBorD (Velcade, cyclophosphamide, dexamethasone) two days ago (in preparation for an autologous stem cell transplant in April), so I’m looking forward to finally getting some relief from this condition.

KarenaD
Name: Karen
Who do you know with myeloma?: Myself
When were you/they diagnosed?: November 4, 2015
Age at diagnosis: 54

Re: Eye inflammation (anterior uveitis) from Velcade?

by TerryH on Thu Mar 03, 2016 9:20 pm

Thanks for that reference, Karen.

There's another discussion here in the forum that also deals with this topic:

"Eye inflammation or stye from Cytoxan-Velcade-dex?" (started May 6, 2014)

See especially the comment by Dr. Hoffman, where he writes
For some reason, this never seems to get reported in any formal way as a known side effect, but most of us who see a lot of myeloma have seen this clearly related to Velcade use.

Dr. Hoffman also says that the problem clears up after Velcade treatment stops, so you should soon get some relief, Karen.

TerryH

Re: Eye inflammation (anterior uveitis) from Velcade?

by torimooney on Fri Mar 04, 2016 4:30 am

I have red irritated eyes ever since starting Velcade nearly 4 years ago. Ophthalmologist doesn't feel it's a problem and says to use fake tears 4x / day.

torimooney
Name: tori
Who do you know with myeloma?: myself
When were you/they diagnosed?: apr 2012
Age at diagnosis: 64

Re: Eye inflammation (anterior uveitis) from Velcade?

by Christina on Fri Mar 04, 2016 10:10 am

Wow, thanks for posting this.

I've been on Velcade 3 full cycles now and have seen the eye doctor twice. I'm having just what you described – redness, styes, etc. I do the sterile wipes, have the ointment, etc. it only just gets better and then seems to get worst. I asked about it to my hem/onc and he said dex-related. But it only just started with Velcade and I've been on dex a long time.

Hummmm, I will bring this up at our next appointment.

Thanks again. I really thought I was the only one.

Christina
Name: Christina
When were you/they diagnosed?: June2005
Age at diagnosis: 52

Re: Eye inflammation (anterior uveitis) from Velcade?

by ninebluemoons on Thu May 19, 2016 8:04 am

I also experienced swelling in both eyes during my course of treatment on Revlimid, Velcade and dex. It was so embarrassing as my eyes continued to swell up like golf balls as I had to continue to work full-time at a new job (they were unbeknownst to my diagnosis).

When I went to see a myeloma specialist at Dana-Farber, he also said he sees this as attributed to Velcade. A colleague of the specialist recommended flaxseed oil vitamins and keeping your eyes clean by using diluted baby shampoo applied with Q-tips. It worsened and an ophthalmologist treated my eyes with doxycycline antibiotics and had to slice and drain my eyelid (to this day, I'm missing eyelashes). There's a reason why I called my cocktail of drugs napalm.

ninebluemoons


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