How Often Does Somatuline® Depot Need to Be Injected?
Keeping up with your Somatuline Depot (lanreotide) Injection therapy exactly as prescribed is essential to keeping acromegaly under control. Your endocrinologist will determine your treatment schedule based on your response to therapy.
- For the first 3 months of treatment, your starting dose will be an injection of 90 mg every 4 weeks. Patients with moderate and severe renal and hepatic impairment should be started on Somatuline Depot 60 mg.1
- After the first 3 months, some patients will stay on a 90 mg every-4-week schedule, but your dose may be adjusted up to 120 mg or down to 60 mg1*
- Your endocrinologist will determine your treatment schedule based on your response to therapy
- Some patients who are controlled on 60 mg or 90 mg injections once every 4 weeks may have the frequency of their injections reduced to once every 6 or 8 weeks on 120 mg1*
Keeping to your prescribed injection schedule is essential to optimizing your treatment
*"Controlled" is defined as GH ≤ 2.5 µg/mL, normalized IGF-1, and clinical symptoms controlled.
If you are controlled on Somatuline Depot 60 mg or 90 mg you may be considered for an extended dosing interval of Somatuline Depot 120 mg every 6 or 8 weeks. GH and IGF-1 levels should be obtained 6 weeks after this change in dosing regimen to evaluate persistence of patient response.
Individual response to any acromegaly therapy will vary from patient to patient. Ask your endocrinologist if Somatuline® Depot therapy is right for you.
Important Information About Somatuline Depot
Your doctor is your primary source of information about treatment. For more information, please talk to your doctor and see the full Patient Information. Before each treatment, please read the Patient Information that comes with each package of Somatuline Depot (lanreotide) Injection, as there may be new information.
Who is Somatuline Depot for?
Somatuline Depot is a prescription medicine used for the long-term treatment of people with acromegaly when:
- surgery or radiotherapy have not worked well enough or
- they are not able to have surgery or radiotherapy
It is not known if Somatuline Depot is safe and effective in children.
Before taking Somatuline Depot, you should talk to your doctor about all of your medical conditions and medicines you are taking, including if you have:
- Gallbladder, thyroid, heart, kidney, and liver problems
- Diabetes
- Are allergic to latex or natural dry rubber
- Are taking cyclosporine (Gengraf, Neoral, Sandimmune)
- Are receiving medicines that lower heart rate such as beta-blockers
- Are taking a medicine called bromocriptine (Parlodel)
- Are pregnant, plan to become pregnant, breast-feeding, or plan to breast-feed, it is not known if Somatuline Depot could harm your unborn baby or passes into your breast milk
What are possible side effects of Somatuline Depot?
Somatuline Depot may cause serious side effects, including:
- Gallstones. Tell your doctor if you have any of these symptoms including: sudden pain in your upper right stomach area (abdominal), right shoulder or between your shoulder blades, yellowing of your skin and whites of your eyes, fever with chills, and/or nausea
- Changes in your blood sugar. Your doctor may change your dose of diabetes medicine especially when you first start receiving Somatuline Depot or if your dose of Somatuline Depot changes.
- Slow heart rate
- High blood pressure
The most common side effects of Somatuline Depot include: diarrhea, stomach area (abdominal) pain, nausea, and pain, itching, or lump at the injection site.
Tell your doctor if you have any side effect that bothers you or that does not go away. These are not all the possible side effects of Somatuline Depot. For more information ask your doctor or pharmacist.
Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. You may report side effects to the FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088.
