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Cytarabine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands

Cytarabine is a medicine sold in the U.S. under 3 brand and generic names. Below: what the FDA label says, every product that contains it, what the pills look like, and its recall record.

By the pharmaranks editorial teamReviewed against the FDA (openFDA label, NDC Directory & Enforcement) sourcesUpdated Jul 24, 2026How we research

Key facts

Available as
Injectable · Liposomal
Sold as
3 products — Cytarabine, Depocyt and Cytosar-U
Prescription?
Prescription only
Generic available?
Yes

Every cytarabine product we track (3)

Same active ingredient — different manufacturer, form, price and FDA recall record. That last one is what our independent score measures.

Cytarabine products
#DrugRatingPharmacy pays
1
Cytarabine
72/100—View →
2
Depocyt
72/100—View →
3
Cytosar-U
54/100—View →

Combination products containing cytarabine

A combination is a different drug — different dosing, different warnings. It is listed here so you can find it, not so you can substitute it.

How long cytarabine keeps

The date on a sealed pack is not the only one: some cytarabine labels start a second clock once the product is opened or mixed, as short as 4 hours.

The in-use limits cytarabine labels print, quoted

What people report to the FDA about cytarabine

The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 63,442 reports naming cytarabine, and the FDA flagged 98% 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:

  • febrile neutropenia8,118 reports
  • pyrexia4,419 reports
  • neutropenia3,880 reports
  • thrombocytopenia3,113 reports
  • sepsis3,102 reports
  • pneumonia2,487 reports
  • myelosuppression2,399 reports
  • pancytopenia2,278 reports

Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean cytarabine 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.

Source: openFDA drug/event (FAERS), retrieved September 25, 2026.

Related calculators

How long it stays in your system →

Frequently asked questions

Can you take cytarabine 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 cytarabine against whatever else you take — and remember that a label not naming a drug is not the same as that combination being safe.

What brand names is cytarabine sold under?

We track 3 cytarabine-containing products in the U.S.: Cytarabine, Depocyt and Cytosar-U. They are the same active ingredient; they differ in form, manufacturer, price and FDA recall record.

What forms does cytarabine come in?

Across the brands we track, cytarabine is currently marketed as injectable and liposomal, 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 cytarabine?

Yes. Our catalog lists 2 generic cytarabine products alongside the brand versions. A generic has the same active ingredient and must meet the FDA's bioequivalence standard; it usually costs less. Ask your pharmacist which one your plan covers.

Cite this page
APA
pharmaranks. (2026, July 24). Cytarabine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/cytarabine
MLA
“Cytarabine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/cytarabine.

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 cytarabine on DailyMed (NIH) ↗.