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Taking Glivec in two halves

I started taking Glivec 400mg daily over two months ago. I am sure I read somewhere that it could be taken in two halves at different times of day to reduce side effects.

I started splitting the pill in half about three weeks ago and taking one half after breakfast and the other half after evening meal. This has virtually eliminated the nausea I was getting.

My consultant asked me about a week ago if this was OK and whether it would be better taken as two 100mg pills each time. It seems to still be working (I reached haematological response after one month), so I have carried on doing it my way. Now I can't find any reference to it, other than an earlier post which says that 400mg daily should be taken in one hit.

Does anyone have any information?

Hi Fehr,

The 400 mg tablets are scored, so they are intended to be split in two. Gleevec has a long half life which allows it to be taken once a day. Taking half the dose twice a day is just fine.

I'm Happy to hear that your nausea is gone and hope to see you join the Zero Club in short order.

Zavie

Zavie Miller (age 68)
Ottawa, Canada, dxd AUG/99
INF OCT/99 to FEB/00, CHF
Gleevec since MAR/27/01 (400 mg)
CCR SEP/01. #102 in Zero Club
2.8 log reduction Sep/05
3.0 log reduction Jan/06
> 4 log reduction Nov/06
zmiller@sympatico.ca

Hi Zavie,

Thanks for the info. I sort of guessed that, but the comments of my consultant prompted me to ask.

John.