The application of telephone call back to survey the incidences of adverse drug events of ambulatory oncology patients

Abstract

Abstract

Introduction: Cancer is one of the diseases which cause more problems in worldwide and one of the drug therapies that most common use to treat cancer is chemotherapy which not only had therapeutics effect but also produced some side effects. Usually after each cycle of chemotherapy treatment at hospital, cancer patients were discharged to stay at home. Once if some patients developed some chemotherapy side effects at home sometimes unapproachable by health care providers. Objective: To collect the data about the incidences and management of chemotherapy adverse drug events of ambulatory oncology patients who received chemotherapy treatment at 5E ward Srinagarind Hospital, Khon Kaen University by using telephone. Material and method: This is prospective cross-sectional study. Forty-one patients were assessed for eligibility and recruited in this study and were called to ask about chemotherapy adverse events after received chemotherapy therapy and discharged from the hospital to stay at home. Result: Of 41 patients, there are 22 male patients (53.65%) and 19 female patients (46.34%). Mean age of participants was 54 years. Most of the patients were diagnosed as lung cancer (n=16, 39.02%), cancer of bone joint and soft tissue (n=9, 21.95%), cancer of head and neck (n=8, 19.5%), breast cancer (n=2, 4.88%), cholangiocarcinoma (n=2, 4.88%) and the other type of cancer were counted for 9.72%. The most of incidence of chemotherapy adverse drug events are fatigue and weakness (n=40, 97.56%) while alopecia (n=38, 92.68%) and anorexia (n=35, 85.36%) were the second and the third respectively. For the severity of adverse drugs events (based on CTCAE  version 4.03 severity grading), most of chemotherapy adverse drug events that patients experienced were ranked into grade 1-2 (mild and moderate). Conclusion: The highest incidences of chemotherapy adverse drug events were fatigue and weakness while alopecia and anorexia were the second and the third respectively. From this results might be useful and applicable to develop the process of management program for cancer patients who suffer from chemotherapy adverse drugs event at home.