[3] Common side effects include nausea, diarrhea, fever, rash, shortness of breath, numbness, vision changes, and feeling tired.

[3] Severe side effects include brain dysfunction, low blood cell counts, and lung inflammation.

[5] Fludarabine is highly effective in the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, producing higher response rates than alkylating agents such as chlorambucil alone.

As part of the FLAG or FLAMSA regimen, fludarabine is used together with cytarabine and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor in the treatment of acute myeloid leukaemia.

People who have been treated with fludarabine will usually be asked to take co-trimoxazole or to use monthly nebulised pentamidine to prevent Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia.

The profound lymphopenia caused by fludarabine renders patients susceptible to transfusion-associated graft versus host disease, an oftentimes fatal complication of blood transfusion.