What do all those syllables in my drug name mean?
Generic drug names are structured by National Institutes of Health committees to reflect the type of condition that the drug is used for. This is true of most official generic names, such as those labelled as [USAN] for United States Adopted Name. The table below shows the various name stems used in drugs that treat Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia (and other conditions).
This table, condensed from the National Library of Medicine Drug Information Portal, druginfo.nlm.nih.gov/drugportal/jsp/drugportal/DrugNameGenericStems.jsp（已经失效，链接已删除）, has columns for the Generic Drug Name Stem, a Stem Definition, and a Drug Example. Each stem has hyphens at one or both ends of its text to show that it is found at the beginning, middle, or end of a generic name. Some examples: the stem “-mab” would be found at the end of a generic name and corresponds to the definition “monoclonal antibody”; “-tu-” is found in the middle and refers to an antibody that was constructed to have a tumor as a target; and “-xi-” is found in the middle and refers to chimeric antibody (75% human and 25% mouse).
| Generic Drug Name Stem | Stem Definition | Drug Example |
| -arabine | Antineoplastics （arabinofuranosyl derivatives） | fludarabine |
| -anib | Angiogenesis inhibitor | semaxanib |
| -imus | Immunosuppressive | everolimus |
| -mab | Monoclonal antibodies | rituximab, ofatumumab, obintuzumab |
| -mo | Mouse derived antibody | tositumomab |
| -mu- | Totally human derived antibody | ofatumumab |
| -mustine | Antineoplastics (chloroethylamine derivatives) | bendamustine |
| -tinib | Signaling inhibitor of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK), which is an essential enzyme in the B-cell | ibrutinib |
| -tu- | Antibody that was constructed to have a tumor as a target | rituximab, ofatumumab, obintuzumab, alemtuzumab |
| -xi- | Chimeric antibody (75% human) and 25% mouse) | rituximab |
| -zu- | Humanized antibody (95% human and 5% mouse) | obintuzumab, alemtuzumab |
| -zomib | Protease inhibitor | bortezomib, carfilzomib, ixazomib |
Copyright The International Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia Foundation
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