ASSESSMENT OF DRUG UTILISATION IN PATIENTS ATTENDING A DAYCARE CHEMOTHERAPY UNIT
*Nidhi Radhakrishnan, Afiya Chogle, Rahul S. Patil, Sumi V. Pillai and Binai K. Sankar
ABSTRACT
Background: Cancer being the second leading cause of death globally, the treatment decision for cancer makes it a complex procedure. Due to its side effects and expense, selection of the appropriate drug has always been a challenge. Studies like drug utilization helps in keeping a check on rational use of these drugs by assuring maximum benefit and minimum risk. Objectives: The main objective was to assess the drug utilization of anticancer drug along with nutritional assessment and ADR severity. Methods: The observational study was conducted on subjects with cancer who satisfied the inclusion and exclusion criteria identified from the oncology department. The subjects were explained about the purpose of the study and consent was obtained. Results: Out of 137 anti-cancer drugs prescribed for 80 patients, the class of platinum derivatives were prescribed the most (34.53%) followed by taxanes (19.42%) and monoclonal antibodies (17.27%). The least commonly prescribed drugs were targeted drugs (3.60%).All the subjects included in the study were assessed for severity of adverse drug reaction using Hartwig and seigel severity scale. Out of 5 severity levels, only two of them were observed in these 80 subjects. The distribution of PG-SGA stages were analyzed and it was observed that majority of them belonged to stage C (78.57%) which is classified as malnourished, followed by stage A (22.86%) classified as well-nourished and stage B (12.86%) classified as moderately nourished. Conclusion: In our study we observed that platinum derivatives were the most commonly prescribed class of drugs compared to others, whereas, targeted drugs were less preferred.
Keywords: Cancer, drug utilization, adverse drug reaction, Nutrition.
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