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Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter November 14, 2017

Drug-drug interactions in cancer chemotherapy: an observational study in a tertiary health care centre

  • Harminder Singh EMAIL logo and Baltej Singh

Abstract

Background:

The objective of this study was to evaluate the occurrence of drug-drug interactions (DDIs) in patients on cancer chemotherapy, with the identification of risk factors for these DDIs.

Methods:

This was a cross-sectional, descriptive study carried out at the Department of Onco-Radiation at Guru Gobind Singh Medical College, Faridkot, Punjab. The DDIs were recorded with the help of a drug interaction/interplay information software.

Results:

In total, 354 interactions were identified from 283 patient records. The mean age of the patients in the study was 49.05±14.35 years. According to the mechanism of interaction, 306 (86.44%) drug interactions were classified as pharmacokinetic and 48 (13.56%) as pharmacodynamic in nature.

Conclusions:

Sensitization of the treating oncologist and the establishment of alerts, such as electronic alerts or a novel fully digital computerized technology that gives a warning when a health expert enters a patient’s prescription orders into the electronic medical documentation, can be helpful in controlling DDIs.

  1. Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.

  2. Research funding: None declared.

  3. Employment or leadership: None declared.

  4. Honorarium: None declared.

  5. Competing interests: The funding organization(s) played no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the report for publication.

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Received: 2017-1-6
Accepted: 2017-9-4
Published Online: 2017-11-14
Published in Print: 2017-12-20

©2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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