Fentora contains a drug called fentanyl citrate. This is a pain-relieving medication known as an opioid that is used to treat breakthrough pain in adult patients with cancer who are already taking other opioid-based pain drugs for their persistent and ever-present cancer pain.
Breakthrough pain is additional sudden pain that persists despite you having taken your usual opioid pain-relieving medicines.
Opioid medicines contain active ingredients such as fentanyl citrate, morphine, oxycodone, codeine, pethidine, buprenorphine, or methadone.
Ask your doctor if you have any queries about why Fentora orally disintegrating tablets have been prescribed.
Your doctor may have prescribed it for other uses.
Fentora is only available on valid doctors’ prescriptions and is not suitable for everyone.
When You Must Not Take It
Fentora has a number of side effects. Do not use Fentora if:
- You suffer from short-term pain rather than breakthrough pain, such as pain from surgeries or injuries, headaches, or migraines
- You have not been taking prescribed opioid pain medicine every day on a regular schedule, for at least one week, to manage your persistent pain.
- You have not been taking these medicines, you must not use Fentora, because it may increase the risk that breathing could become dangerously slow or shallow, or even cease.
- You are allergic to fentanyl, or any of the other active ingredients of Fentora (see list at the end of this leaflet)
- You suffer from severe breathing problems or harsh obstructive lung issues.
Also:
- Do not use Fentora after the expiry date shown on the package label and the carton.
- Do not use Fentora if the packaging seems to have been broken or opened.
- Before you start to take Fentora, tell your doctor if:
- you have any existing allergies
- you are pregnant or intend to become pregnant
- you are breastfeeding or planning to breastfeed
- the other opioid pain medication you take for your persistent (around-the-clock) cancer pain that has not stabilized yet
- you are suffering from any condition that affects your breathing (such as asthma, wheezing, or shortness of breath).
- You have a head injury.
- You have a uniquely slow heart rate or other heart problems
- You have kidney or liver problems, as these organs affect how your system breaks down the medicine; these organs affect how your system breaks down the drug.
- You have a low amount of fluid in the circulation or low blood pressure
Take Special Care with Fentora if:
- You are taking any medicines which might typically have a sedative effect (make you sleepy), such as:
- anxiety medication
- sleeping pills
- tranquilizers
- antihistamines
- Other strong analgesics used to deal with pain such as morphine, oxycodone, codeine, pethidine, buprenorphine, or methadone.
- You are taking any medicines or substances that might affect how your body breaks down Fentora, such as:
- medications used in the treatment of fungal infections, such as ketoconazole, itraconazole, and fluconazole
- medicines that help deal with HIV infection, such as ritonavir, nelfinavir, amprenavir, and fosamprenavir
- certain antibiotics such as clarithromycin and erythromycin
- medications used for severe nausea
- medicines used to treat high blood pressure or heart diseases, such as diltiazem and verapamil
- drugs used for severe depression known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) or serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) or have done so in the past fortnight
- medicines used for severe depression called monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) or have done so in the past fortnight