Vincristine Injection
Vincristine Injection is an intravenous (into a vein) chemotherapy medicine used for acute leukemia and, with other cancer drugs, for several lymphomas and childhood tumors.
🧬 Where this information comes from Click to expand
The clinical label records used on this page are FDA-filed Structured Product Labeling (SPL) retrieved through openFDA. We identified 1 clinical label set within the page’s selected clinical scope after exact ingredient or ingredient-combination matching and applicable route/form matching. Forms, routes, brands, labelers, strengths, and NDC product-record counts are built separately from matching FDA National Drug Code Directory records. The linked DailyMed document is a representative official source for verification, not the page’s only clinical source. View the linked label on DailyMed →
⚠️ FDA Boxed Warning — the FDA’s strongest safety alert ▾
Vincristine must be given only into a vein. Giving it into the spinal fluid (intrathecal) usually causes death.
It should be given by experienced professionals, and the IV needle or catheter must be correctly placed first. If the drug leaks into surrounding tissue, it can cause considerable irritation. The injection should be stopped and the rest given in another vein. Hyaluronidase and moderate heat may help spread the drug out and limit discomfort and cellulitis (skin infection). To prevent mix-ups, it is diluted in a flexible plastic container labeled “FOR INTRAVENOUS USE ONLY – FATAL IF GIVEN BY OTHER ROUTES.”
📖 Vincristine Injection: Patient Information Guide
A plain-language walkthrough of Vincristine Injection — what it treats, how it works, how it’s taken, side effects, warnings and interactions. Tap any section to expand it.
What Vincristine Injection is used for
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Vincristine Injection treats several cancers.
- Acute leukemia
- Hodgkin's disease (with other cancer medicines)
- Non-Hodgkin's malignant lymphomas (with other cancer medicines)
- Rhabdomyosarcoma (with other cancer medicines)
- Neuroblastoma (with other cancer medicines)
- Wilms' tumor (with other cancer medicines)
How Vincristine Injection works
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Vincristine blocks the formation of microtubules, which form the spindle cells use to divide. Cells get stuck at the metaphase stage and can't finish dividing. Its exact mechanisms are still being studied.
It is often chosen for combination chemotherapy because it does not usually cause significant bone marrow suppression at recommended doses.
How Vincristine Injection is taken (dosage)
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Vincristine is given only into a vein by an experienced health professional, usually once a week. The dose is calculated carefully and differs for children and adults. It may be reduced for people with certain liver problems.
- It is diluted in a flexible plastic container with 0.9% Sodium Chloride Injection.
- The IV site is watched for leakage or swelling.
- Follow your prescriber's schedule for any missed visit.
Vincristine Injection side effects in detail
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Most side effects are related to dose and are often reversible.
- Hair loss
- Constipation and belly cramps
- Nerve pain, tingling, numbness
- Low white blood cells
- Nausea, vomiting, weight loss
- Jaw, bone or limb pain
Seek help for severe belly pain, severe weakness, trouble walking, seizures, vision or hearing changes, voice or breathing trouble, or allergic reactions.
Vincristine Injection warnings and precautions
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- Fatal if given by any route other than into a vein.
- Leakage at the IV site can cause considerable irritation.
- Nerve damage can worsen with continued treatment and may persist.
- Severe constipation and paralytic ileus can occur, especially in young children.
- Liver veno-occlusive disease has been reported, particularly in children.
- It can cause fetal harm.
Vincristine Injection interactions: what it interacts with
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Vincristine is broken down by CYP3A enzymes and moved by P-glycoprotein, so many drugs affect it.
- Itraconazole and other strong CYP3A inhibitors: raise vincristine levels and nerve side effects; avoid.
- Fluconazole and other moderate inhibitors: need frequent monitoring.
- St. John's Wort and strong CYP3A inducers: avoid.
- P-gp inhibitors or inducers: avoid.
- Phenytoin: levels may drop and seizures may increase.
- L-asparaginase: give vincristine 12 to 24 hours before it.
- Platinum-containing cancer drugs: added risk to hearing.
This is not a complete list of interactions. Always talk with your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping, or changing any medication.
Before taking Vincristine Injection
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- Not for people with the demyelinating form of Charcot-Marie-Tooth syndrome.
- Avoid pregnancy during treatment; it can harm a fetus.
- Tell your doctor about liver disease or liver radiation.
- Tell your doctor about prior chest radiation.
- Share all your medicines, including antifungals and St. John's Wort.
- Children, especially young ones, may be at higher risk for bowel paralysis.
Vincristine Injection overdose: if you take too much
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Overdose can cause exaggerated side effects and death; children under 13 have died after doses about 10 times the recommended amount. Care is supportive: managing fluid and sodium problems, seizure treatment, preventing bowel blockage, and monitoring the heart and blood counts. Folinic acid may help, and dialysis is not likely to help. Intrathecal injection usually leads to ascending paralysis and death.
Pharmacodynamics: what Vincristine Injection does in the body
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Vincristine stops dividing cells at metaphase by inhibiting microtubule formation. It does not appear to have a constant or significant effect on platelets or red blood cells. Its unique toxicity is nerve damage (neuropathy).
Pharmacokinetics: how your body processes Vincristine Injection
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After an IV injection, over 90% of the drug moves from the blood into tissue within 15 to 30 minutes. The liver breaks it down using CYP3A enzymes, and about 80% leaves in the stool and 10% to 20% in urine. Its terminal half-life averages 85 hours, with a range of 19 to 155 hours. It does not penetrate well into spinal fluid.
How to store Vincristine Injection
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refrigerated between 2°C–8°C (36°F–46°F). Protect from light. Store Upright.
📄 Written from Vincristine Injection’s FDA-approved label information, summarized in plain language with AI, and reviewed by our pharmacy team before publication. Every point is grounded in that labeling — nothing is invented. How we use AI →
Supplements & herbs that interact with Vincristine Injection
148 supplements and herbal products have documented interactions with Vincristine Injection in the licensed clinical database we use. Most are manageable — but your pharmacist should know about everything you take, including vitamins and herbals.
- Major · 3
- Moderate · 108
- Minor · 37
Educational information from a licensed clinical database (Natural Medicines) — see our data sources & update cadence. Not medical advice: an interaction being documented does not mean it will happen to you; do not start or stop medications or supplements without professional guidance.
🩺 Vincristine Injection: pharmacist answers to common questions
Quick, plain-English answers to the questions patients ask most about Vincristine Injection — the kind of thing our pharmacy team would talk through with you at the counter.
What is vincristine for?
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How will I get it?
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What side effects should I expect?
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When should I call my doctor?
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Do other medicines affect it?
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Is it safe in pregnancy?
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Is Vincristine Injection available over the counter?
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When was Vincristine Injection first available?
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Who makes Vincristine Injection?
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💬 Answers drafted from Vincristine Injection’s FDA-approved label information, summarized in plain language with AI, and reviewed by our pharmacy team before publication. Grounded in that labeling — nothing is made up. How we use AI →
🧰 More about Vincristine Injection on HelloPharmacist
💊 Vincristine Injection forms and strengths (how it comes)
Vincristine Injection is available in 1 form. Different forms and brands can have different approved uses, doses, schedules, and directions. Follow the instructions for your exact product, and do not switch forms without guidance from your prescriber or pharmacist.
Injection
How this form is used
- VinCRIStine Sulfate Injection is used for acute leukemia.
- VinCRIStine Sulfate Injection is also used with other cancer drugs for Hodgkin's disease, non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, rhabdomyosarcoma, neuroblastoma and Wilms' tumor.
- VinCRIStine Sulfate Injection is for intravenous use only and is fatal if given by other routes.
- VinCRIStine Sulfate Injection is given at weekly intervals through an intact, free-flowing IV needle or catheter.
- VinCRIStine Sulfate Injection should be diluted in a flexible plastic container and not mixed with anything other than 0.9% Sodium Chloride Injection.
📊 Vincristine Injection on the U.S. market: products, makers and brands
How Vincristine Injection appears in the FDA’s National Drug Code Directory — including its dosage forms, strengths, brand names, manufacturers, and FDA-listed product records. These are directory records, not sales or prescription volume.
Share of FDA-listed product records by manufacturer — FDA National Drug Code Directory. Record counts are not sales or prescription volume.
📈 How widely Vincristine Injection is used (Medicaid data)
A general measure of how commonly Vincristine Injection is prescribed, based on Medicaid — one of the largest public drug programs. The figure below is prescriptions filled in Q1–Q4 2025, summed across every form and brand of the drug.
Think of this as a proxy for how widely Vincristine Injection is used, drawn from freely available public data. Medicaid is just one program — these numbers don’t include Medicare, other government coverage, or commercial and cash-pay prescriptions, so real-world use is higher than what’s shown here.
How commonly is Vincristine Injection prescribed? Of the 1,597 medications we measure, Vincristine Injection ranks #943 by Medicaid prescriptions — more than 41% of them.
Utilization by Vincristine Injection product
Pick a product to see its own Medicaid numbers. Each chip is one clinical product — a specific strength & dosage form as defined by RxNorm — with brand-name and generic versions combined.
2 ML vincristine sulfate 1 MG/ML Injection Most dispensed
Summed across the 2 of 2 listed NDC products with Medicaid activity — every brand and generic of this exact strength & form. RxNorm 1863354
1 ML vincristine sulfate 1 MG/ML Injection
Summed across the 2 of 2 listed NDC products with Medicaid activity — every brand and generic of this exact strength & form. RxNorm 1863343
Shares are of the Medicaid prescriptions shown here. Product grouping follows RxNorm (the National Library of Medicine’s drug terminology), so “one product” means one strength & dosage form regardless of manufacturer. Dollar figures are gross Medicaid reimbursement before mandatory rebates — rebates (often large, especially for brand-name drugs) are confidential, so actual net cost to Medicaid is lower than shown.
Source: Medicaid State Drug Utilization Data (CMS), aggregated by generic ingredient — summed across every NDC (all brands, strengths, salt forms and dosage forms) of Vincristine Injection, and across all states and both fee-for-service and managed-care claims. A general popularity signal; it excludes Medicare, commercial insurance and cash prescriptions, so it is not total U.S. use. Based on the 4 of 4 listed Vincristine Injection NDCs with Medicaid activity.
🔍 Compare Vincristine Injection products
A representative set of FDA-listed product records for Vincristine Injection — across manufacturers, strengths, and dosage forms, grouped by form with each product’s manufacturer and how the FDA approved it. The same medicine may be made and packaged by different companies, so a single drug can have many directory entries. (It’s also why a refill can look different — a new shape, color, or box — even though it contains the same medication.)
| Strength | Route | Manufacturer / Labeler | Category ⓘ | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 💊Injection | ||||
| 1 mg/mL | Intravenous | Hospira, Inc. × 6 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 1 mg/mL | Intravenous | Teva Parenteral Medicines, Inc. × 2 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
Showing 8 of 8 products — FDA National Drug Code Directory. See every product, package size and price: browse all 8 Vincristine Injection NDCs →
📈 Vincristine Injection side effects reported to the FDA (FAERS)
After a medicine reaches the market, patients, doctors and drugmakers can send the FDA reports of problems they think may be linked to it. Here’s what’s been reported for Vincristine Injection — a signal of what to watch for, not proof the drug caused it.
Source: openFDA, from the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS). These are voluntary reports — they don’t prove the drug caused the effect, and counts reflect how often something was reported, not how often it actually happens. Reports also often name the very problem the medicine is taken for — a common reason to file one is that the drug didn’t help — so for a pain reliever you may see “pain” high on the list; that points to why the report was filed, not to the drug causing the symptom. This counts every report that lists Vincristine Injection in any role, so the total runs higher than the FDA’s official dashboard, which counts only cases where the drug is the suspect. For the authoritative figures, see the FDA FAERS Public Dashboard. Always talk to your pharmacist or doctor.
🏛️ Vincristine Injection FDA approval history
How Vincristine Injection went from FDA review to the pharmacy shelf — the key milestones in its regulatory journey.
Source: Drugs@FDA.
🚨 Vincristine Injection recall history
A recall is when a specific batch of a medicine is pulled from the market — usually a manufacturing issue, not a problem with the drug itself. Class I is most serious, Class III least.
Source: openFDA drug enforcement (recall) reports.
RxNorm Concept Web — From Ingredient to Every Form and Strength
This page starts with one ingredient concept (IN). The branches below show its dose-form concepts (SCDF), then the available clinical drug and strength concepts (SCD). Combination products remain separate concepts with their own pages.
RxCUI 11202 1 dose form · 3 strengths
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Dose form (SCDF) Injection RxCUI 1863342In current FDA listingsClinical drug / strength (SCD) 1 ML vincristine sulfate 1 MG/MLRxCUI 18633432 ML vincristine sulfate 1 MG/MLRxCUI 186335431 ML vincristine sulfate liposome 0.16 MG/MLRxCUI 1304995
Look up RxCUI 11202 in the RxCUI Atlas →
RxNorm is the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s normalized drug vocabulary. Its concept hierarchy can include forms that are not currently marketed; the status on each branch compares that concept with current FDA listings. RxCUIs identify vocabulary concepts, not individual packages or manufacturers.
📦 Vincristine Injection supply and shortage status
Whether Vincristine Injection is in short supply in the U.S. right now, plus any shortage history the FDA has on record. A shortage usually reflects a manufacturing or demand issue — not a safety problem with the drug.
Source: openFDA, from the FDA Drug Shortages database.
🏷️ Vincristine Injection brand names
🏭 Who makes Vincristine Injection: manufacturers and labelers
Vincristine Injection drug class (RxNorm)
Vincristine Injection belongs to the Vinca Alkaloid class.
Classified by RxNorm RxClass — the U.S. National Library of Medicine's standardized drug-classification service (Established Pharmacologic Class from the FDA, the ATC drug family from the WHO, and mechanism of action). Reference only, not medical advice.
🔬 Sources for this Vincristine Injection page
Core label, product, RxNorm, safety, and utilization data on this page come from the sources identified below. AI-written, editorial, and licensed sections are labeled separately.
How we combine label and product data
HelloPharmacist combines public FDA and NLM records; we don’t author the underlying clinical facts. We identified 1 FDA-filed SPL label set within the page’s selected clinical scope after exact ingredient or ingredient-combination matching and applicable route/form matching. The representative label is the starting point for the displayed reference monograph; the 12 largest stored in-scope SPL records, which may include that representative, are compared section by section, and the longest available version of each section is retained. Forms, routes, brands, labelers, product-listed strengths, and product-record counts are aggregated separately from ingredient-matched FDA NDC Directory records; package records listed above are associated with the linked SPL; and the normalized concept hierarchy comes from NLM RxNorm.
Where a section is identified as AI-written, its plain-language text is generated from bounded label evidence. New draft drug pages remain in the admin review queue before first publication. Hospira, Inc. is the representative DailyMed label linked for verification and dates; it is not the sole source used for the page.
This is general education, not medical advice — always consult your doctor or pharmacist about your medications and any medical condition. For the exact wording of the linked representative label, view that label on DailyMed; some displayed composite sections may come from other in-scope SPL labels. Learn how we use AI and our data sources & update cadence.