Pharmaceutical intervention for adverse events improves quality of life in patients with cancer undergoing outpatient chemotherapy

Hironori Fujii; Yukino Ueda; Chiemi Hirose; Koichi Ohata; Kumiko Sekiya; Mika Kitahora; Shiori Sadaka; Senri Yamamoto; Daichi Watanabe; Hiroko Kato-Hayashi; Hirotoshi Iihara; Ryo Kobayashi; Miho Kaburaki; Nobuhisa Matsuhashi; Takao Takahashi; Akitaka Makiyama; Kazuhiro Yoshida; Hideki Hayashi; Akio Suzuki

doi:10.1186/s40780-022-00239-w

Pharmaceutical intervention for adverse events improves quality of life in patients with cancer undergoing outpatient chemotherapy

J Pharm Health Care Sci. 2022 Mar 2;8(1):8. doi: 10.1186/s40780-022-00239-w.

Authors

Hironori Fujii^#^{1

2}, Yukino Ueda^#³, Chiemi Hirose⁴, Koichi Ohata⁴, Kumiko Sekiya⁴, Mika Kitahora⁴, Shiori Sadaka⁴, Senri Yamamoto⁴, Daichi Watanabe⁴, Hiroko Kato-Hayashi⁴, Hirotoshi Iihara^{4

3}, Ryo Kobayashi⁴, Miho Kaburaki⁵, Nobuhisa Matsuhashi⁶, Takao Takahashi⁶, Akitaka Makiyama⁶, Kazuhiro Yoshida⁶, Hideki Hayashi^{3

5}, Akio Suzuki^{4

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmacy, Gifu University Hospital, Yanagido 1-1, Gifu, 501-1194, Japan. h_fujii@gifu-u.ac.jp.
² Laboratory of Pharmacy Practice and Social Science, Gifu Pharmaceutical University, Gifu, Japan. h_fujii@gifu-u.ac.jp.
³ Laboratory of Pharmacy Practice and Social Science, Gifu Pharmaceutical University, Gifu, Japan.
⁴ Department of Pharmacy, Gifu University Hospital, Yanagido 1-1, Gifu, 501-1194, Japan.
⁵ Laboratory of Community Healthcare Pharmacy, Gifu Pharmaceutical University, Gifu, Japan.
⁶ Department of Surgical Oncology, Gifu University Graduate School of Medicine, Gifu, Japan.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: The effect of pharmaceutical intervention to treat adverse events on quality of life (QOL) in outpatients receiving cancer chemotherapy is unclear. We investigated whether pharmaceutical intervention provided by pharmacists in collaboration with physicians improves QOL with outpatient cancer chemotherapy.

Methods: We conducted a single-center retrospective descriptive study of pharmaceutical intervention for patients receiving outpatient cancer chemotherapy at Gifu University Hospital between September 2017 and July 2020. We assessed patient QOL using the Japanese version of the EuroQol 5 Dimension5 Level (EQ-5D-5L). Adverse events were graded using the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) version 4.0. We compared the EQ-5D-5L utility value and incidence of grade 2 or higher adverse events before and after pharmaceutical intervention.

Results: Our analysis included 151 patients who underwent 210 chemotherapy cycles. Pharmaceutical intervention significantly improved patients' EQ-5D-5L utility values from 0.8197 to 0.8603 (P < 0.01). EQ-5D-5L utility values were significantly improved after pharmaceutical intervention for nausea and vomiting (pre-intervention 0.8145, post-intervention 0.8603, P = 0.016), peripheral neuropathy (pre-intervention 0.7798, post-intervention 0.7988, P = 0.032) and pain (pre-intervention 0.7625, post-intervention 0.8197, P = 0.035). Although not statistically significant, the incidence of grade 2 or higher adverse events, including nausea and vomiting, dermopathy, pain, oral mucositis, diarrhea and dysgeusia, tended to be lower post-intervention than pre-intervention.

Conclusions: Pharmaceutical intervention by pharmacists in collaboration with physicians may improve QOL in patients undergoing outpatient cancer chemotherapy.

Keywords: Adverse events related outpatient cancer chemotherapy; EuroQol 5 Dimension5 level (EQ-5D-5L); Pharmaceutical intervention; Quality of life; Retrospective observational study.