What safety measures should you take when your child is using thiotepa?
Check with your child’s health-care provider or pharmacist before giving your child any other medicines (prescription, non-prescription, herbal or natural products).
After treatment with thiotepa, this medicine will come through the skin in the perspiration (sweat). This can cause irritation of the skin and can cause the skin to change colour. As a result, your child will need specific skin care while receiving thiotepa and for several hours afterward. You or your child’s caregivers may be exposed to small amounts of thiotepa if they are in contact with your child’s skin, vomit, urine, stools and blood. Use safe handling precautions when dealing with body fluids.
Thiotepa can lower the number of white blood cells in the blood temporarily, which increases your child’s chances of getting an infection. Your child can take the following precautions to prevent infections, especially when the blood count is low:
- Avoid people with infections, such as a cold or the flu.
- Avoid places that are very crowded with large groups of people.
- You and your child should not touch your child’s eyes or inside their nose without washing hands first.
- Your child’s nurse will review with you what to do in case of fever.
Thiotepa can lower the number of platelets in the blood, which increases your child’s risk of bleeding. You can take the following precautions:
- Be careful not to cut your child when using a razor, fingernail scissors or toenail clippers.
- Your child should avoid contact sports where bruising or injury could occur.
- Before your child has surgery, including dental surgery, inform the doctor or dentist that your child is taking thiotepa.
- Your child should not receive a permanent tattoo or any kind of body piercing.
Your child should not receive any immunizations (vaccines) without your child’s health-care provider’s approval. Your child or anyone else in your household should not get oral polio vaccine while your child is being treated for cancer. Tell your child’s health-care provider if anyone in your household has recently received oral polio vaccine. Your child should avoid contact with anyone who has recently received this vaccine.
There is a chance that thiotepa may cause birth defects if it is taken at the time of conception or if it is taken during pregnancy. If your child is sexually active, it is best that they use some kind of birth control while receiving thiotepa. Tell the health-care provider right away if your child may be pregnant.
After receiving thiotepa, your child may not be able to have children later in life or may have difficulty having children. Your child’s health-care provider will discuss this in more detail with you or your child.
