A prospective interventional study on comorbidities, drug – drug interactions and its management among cancer patients

Authors

  • Rama Parthasarathy The Tamilnadu Dr MGR Medical University
  • Sankar Veintramuthu The Tamilnadu Dr MGR Medical University

Keywords:

Drug Interactions, Cancer, Comorbidity

Abstract

Introduction: Drug-Drug interactions (DDI) may cause considerable adverse drug reactions and potentially lead to an increased or decreased clinical effect of a given drug and increases the cost of management. Cancer patients are at high risk of such DDIs because they commonly receive a high number ofdrugs concomitantly, including other cytotoxic agents, hormonal agents, targeted agents, and supportive care agents among medication prescribed to treat comorbidities, especially for elderly patients.

Objetive The objective of this study is to evaluate the incidence of comorbidities and the role of clinical pharmacist inpreventing DDIs in a group of cancer patients.

Materials and Methods: A prospective – observational study was conducted in a multispecialty hospitalfor a period of 8 months among 100 cancer inpatients of oncology department. DDIs were analyzed using Medscape Drug Interaction checker.

Results: In this study, 65 DDIs were identified from 100 patients. Of all DDIs, 33.85% were major, 60% were moderate, and 6.15% were minor DDIs. Clinically significant (55.38 %) DDIs were reported and 69.44% of those were accepted and modified accordingly. Furthermore, we observed 50.77% of DDIs between co-administered drugs. Elderly people (48%) have more co-morbidity such as diabetes (30%)and hypertension (17.81%).

Conclusion: This study concluded that DDIs are very common in cancer patients, particularly people with more co morbidities and using multiple medicines. Clinical pharmacist and physicians must work together to extend the practice of preventing DDIs on individual patient management to improve their quality of life.

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Author Biographies

Rama Parthasarathy, The Tamilnadu Dr MGR Medical University

Department of pharmacy practice, PSG college of pharmacy,

Sankar Veintramuthu, The Tamilnadu Dr MGR Medical University

Department of Pharmaceutics, PSG college of pharmacy

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Published

2020-06-20

How to Cite

1.
Parthasarathy R, Veintramuthu S. A prospective interventional study on comorbidities, drug – drug interactions and its management among cancer patients. Ars Pharm [Internet]. 2020 Jun. 20 [cited 2025 Jun. 3];61(2):113-9. Available from: https://revistaseug.ugr.es/index.php/ars/article/view/10286

Issue

Vol. 61 No. 2 (2020)

Section

Original Articles

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Copyright (c) 2020 Rama Parthasarathy, Sankar Veintramuthu

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