Adverse Events of Monoclonal Antibodies Used for Cancer Therapy

Table 2

Clinical criteria for diagnosing anaphylaxis.

Anaphylaxis is highly likely when anyone of the following three criteria is fulfilled:
(1) acute onset of an illness (minutes to several hours) with involvement of the skin, mucosal tissue, or both (e.g., generalized hives, pruritus or flushing, swollen lips, tongue, and uvula and at least one of the following:
(a) respiratory compromise (e.g., dyspnea, wheeze-bronchospasm, stridor, reduced PEF, and hypoxemia),
(b) reduced BP or associated symptoms of end-organ dysfunction (e.g., hypotonia collapse, syncope, and incontinence);
(2) two or more of the following that occur rapidly after exposure to a likely allergen for that patient (minutes to several hours):
(a) involvement of the skin-mucosal tissue (e.g., generalized hives, itch-flush, and swollen lips, tongue, and uvula),
(b) respiratory compromise (e.g., dyspnea, wheeze-bronchospasm, stridor, reduced PEF, and hypoxemia),
(c) reduced BP or associated symptoms (e.g., hypotonia collapse, syncope, and incontinence),
(d) persistent gastrointestinal symptoms (e.g., crampy abdominal pain, vomiting);
(3) reduced BP after exposure to known allergen for that patient (minutes to several hours):
(a) infants and children: low systolic BP (age specific) or >30% decrease in systolic BP^*
(b) adults: systolic BP of <90 mmHg or >30% decrease from that person’s baseline

Notes
PEF, peak expiratory flow; BP, blood pressure.
^*Low systolic blood pressure for children is defined as <70 mmHg from 1 month to 1 year, less than (70 mmHg + 2 × age) from 1 to 10 years and <90 mmHg from 11 to 17 years.