Amifostine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands
Amifostine is a medicine sold in the U.S. under one brand, for experimental radiation injuries. Below: what the FDA label says, every product that contains it, what the pills look like, and its recall record.
Key facts
- Treats
- Experimental Radiation Injuries
- Available as
- Injectable
- Sold as
- Ethyol
- Prescription?
- Prescription only
- Generic available?
- Not in our catalog
How amifostine is dosed
From the FDA label for Ethyol (application NDA020221). Other amifostine products — different forms, different strengths — are dosed differently. Follow the label for the one you were prescribed.
For reduction of cumulative renal toxicity with chemotherapy, the recommended starting dose is 910 mg/m 2 administered once daily as a 15-minute intravenous infusion, starting 30 minutes prior to chemotherapy. ( 2.1 ) – For reduction of moderate to severe xerostomia from radiation of the head and neck, the recommended dose is 200 mg/m 2 administered once daily as a 3-minute intravenous infusion, starting 15-30 minutes prior to standard fraction radiation therapy (1.8-2.0 Gy). ( 2.2 ) 2.1 Important Administration Instructions Hydration and Premedication Prior to ETHYOL infusion, verify that patients are adequately hydrated and correct existing dehydration if clinically indicated. When administering ETHYOL at the 910 mg/m 2 dose, antiemetic medications, including intravenous dexamethasone 20 mg and a serotonin 5HT 3 receptor antagonist, are recommended prior to ETHYOL administration. Additional antiemetics may be required based on the chemotherapy drugs administered. When administering ETHYOL at the 200 mg/m 2 dose, it is recommended that antiemetic medication be administered prior to ETHYOL administration. Oral 5HT 3 receptor antagonists, alone or in combination with other antiemetics are recommended in the radiotherapy setting. Supine Position and Blood Pressure Monitoring Patients should be kept in a supine position during the ETHYOL infusion. When administering ETHYOL at the…
Amifostine side effects
The following serious adverse reactions are discussed in greater detail in other sections of the labeling: – Hypotension and Cardiovascular Events [see Warnings and Precautions (5.3) ] – Severe Cutaneous Reactions [see Warnings and Precautions (5.4) ] – Hypersensitivity [see Warnings and Precautions (5.5) ] – Nausea and Vomiting [see Warnings and Precautions (5.6) ] – Hypocalcemia [see Warnings and Precautions (5.7) ] Most common adverse reactions are hypotension, nausea and vomiting. ( 6 ) To report SUSPECTED ADVERSE REACTIONS, contact Legacy Pharma Inc. at 1-800-727-7151 or FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088 or www.fda.gov/medwatch . 6.1 Clinical Trial Experience Because clinical trials are conducted under widely varying conditions, adverse reaction rates observed in the clinical trials of a drug cannot be directly compared to rates in the clinical trials of another drug and may not reflect the rates observed in practice. ETHYOL was administered to patients receiving chemotherapeutic agents for advanced ovarian cancer (WR-1 study) or who were receiving standard fractionated radiotherapy for head and neck cancer (WR-38 study) [see Clinical Studies (14) ] . In the WR-38 study of patients with head and neck cancer, 17% (26/150) discontinued ETHYOL due to adverse reactions. All but one of these patients continued to receive radiation treatment until completion. Table 2 summarizes adverse…
Who shouldn’t take amifostine
ETHYOL is contraindicated in patients with known hypersensitivity to aminothiol compounds. ETHYOL is contraindicated in patients with known hypersensitivity to aminothiol compounds. ( 4 )
Amifostine drug interactions
Closely monitor patients receiving anti-hypertensive medications or other drugs that could cause or potentiate hypotension. – Closely monitor patients receiving anti-hypertensive medications or other drugs that could cause or potentiate hypotension. ( 7 )
Every amifostine product we track (1)
Same active ingredient — different manufacturer, form, price and FDA recall record. That last one is what our independent score measures.
Only one: Ethyol.
What people report to the FDA about amifostine
The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 273 reports naming amifostine, and the FDA flagged 85% of those reports as serious. The effects reported most often — leaving out reports about overdose, misuse or the condition being treated, which dominate the raw list for common medicines:
- anaemia36 reports
- thrombocytopenia30 reports
- febrile neutropenia29 reports
- mucosal inflammation29 reports
- nausea26 reports
- vomiting22 reports
- pyrexia20 reports
- white blood cell count decreased20 reports
Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean amifostine caused the effect — anyone can file one, and many describe people taking several medicines for several conditions. Crucially there is no denominator: FAERS does not record how many people took the drug, so these counts cannot be turned into “X% of patients” — a bigger number often just means a more widely used or more talked-about drug. Duplicates exist, and publicity drives reporting. For what is actually established, read the FDA label section above.
Source: openFDA drug/event (FAERS), retrieved July 25, 2026.
Related calculators
Frequently asked questions
What is amifostine?
Ethyol (Amifostine) is a medication used to treat Experimental Radiation Injuries.
Can you take amifostine with other medicines?
It depends on the medicine. We check it against the FDA labels rather than guessing: our interaction checker searches each drug's own label for the other and quotes what it says, naming the section it came from. Run amifostine against whatever else you take — and remember that a label not naming a drug is not the same as that combination being safe.
What forms does amifostine come in?
Across the brands we track, amifostine is currently marketed as injectable, per the FDA's National Drug Code Directory. Each form is dosed differently — follow the label for the exact product you were prescribed.
Is there a generic amifostine?
We do not currently list a generic-labelled amifostine product. That does not always mean none exists — it means none appears under a generic name in the FDA data we track. Ask your pharmacist.
Cite this page
- APA
- pharmaranks. (2026, July 24). Amifostine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/amifostine
- MLA
- “Amifostine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/amifostine.
We summarise public FDA and NIH sources — for a clinical claim, cite the primary source we link to as well.
Sources: FDA openFDA drug label, National Drug Code Directory, and Enforcement (recall) database. This page reproduces public FDA data and is not medical advice. Dosing is set by your prescriber.
Read the full FDA label for amifostine on DailyMed (NIH) ↗.