Clinical Interventions on Drug Interactions Frequently Required During Treatment

the Cancer Therapy Advisor take:

According to a new study published in the journal Annals of Oncology, researchers from the Netherlands have found that clinical interventions on drug-drug interactions are frequently required among ambulatory patients with cancer starting anticancer treatment.

Drug-drug interactions are a major concern in oncology because patients may take many concomitant medications.

Therefore, researchers sought to investigate the total number of clinical interventions on drug-drug interactions among a sample of ambulatory patients with cancer starting anticancer treatment. 

The researchers enrolled 302 patients. Drug interaction software identified 603 drug-drug interactions among these patients, and an expert team of clinical pharmacologists determined that 120 of those among 81 patients were potentially clinically relevant. 

Of those, 13% already had a clinical intervention executed by the hemato(oncologist), but the clinical pharmacologists proposed an additional intervention in 14% of patients. The researchers identified the number of over-the-counter medications and the number of comorbidities as determinants.

The findings suggest that structured screening by (hemato)oncologists and clinical pharmacologists/pharmacists for potentially clinically relevant drug-drug interventions should occur prior to and during anticancer treatment.