Disseminated intravascular coagulation is an underestimated but fatal adverse event associated with blinatumomab therapy: A pharmacovigilance analysis of FAERS

Abstract

Hematologic adverse events (AEs) are common and serious toxicities in patients with hematologic malignancies undergoing blinatumomab therapy. However, restrictive selection criteria in pivotal clinical trials can lead to an underestimation of rare but fatal toxicities. In this study, we systematically analyzed hematologic AEs associated with blinatumomab using the Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) from October 2014 to December 2023. Disproportionate analysis was performed to identify overreported AEs, with a reporting odds ratio (ROR), and a lower bound of the 95% confidence interval (ROR025) exceeding one considered significant. Additionally, adjusted mortality rates and risk ratios (RR) of the top 10 reported hematologic AEs were calculated using a logistic regression model. Among 4745 blinatumomab‐related cases, 418 (8.81%) involved hematologic AEs. We identified 22 significantly overreporting hematologic AEs compared to the full database, with myelosuppression (n = 39 [9.33%], ROR025 = 8.04), disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC, n = 31 [7.42%], ROR025 = 15.14), and bone marrow failure (n = 14 [3.35%], ROR025 = 3.41) notably underestimated in clinical trials. DIC resulted in a substantial mortality rate of 45.16%. Finally, DIC was found to be independently associated with death in a multivariable logistic regression analysis (RR = 2.47 [95% CI: 1.11–3.83]). These findings could aid clinicians in the early detection of these rarely reported but fatal hematologic AEs, thereby reducing the risk of severe toxicities in blinatumomab recipients.