Assessment of Anticancer Drug Utilization Pattern from a hospital-based cancer registry—A Single Center Experience from Saudi Arabia
Description
In recent years, various advancements in anticancer therapy have led to the development of multiple regimens and protocols. This study endeavors to provide an extensive evaluation of anticancer therapy prescription patterns from a hospital-based cancer registry. Materials and Methods: From June 2014 to April 2022, 512 adult cancer patients who received chemotherapy in our cancer center were included in a retrospective study. Data encompassed demographic characteristics of patients and cancer, chemotherapy protocols or agents, antiemetics, and drug side effects. The prescribed drugs were assessed using the Essential Medicines List (EML), while the prescription’s rationality was determined using the World Health Organization (WHO) indicators.
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Study design: A retrospective observational study conducted between June 2014 and April 2022 at King Khaled Hospital (KKH) in Najran City, Saudi Arabia included all adult patients with cancer regardless of the stage or treatment type. On March 13, 2022, the Ethics Research Committees of King Khalid Hospital approved this study (ID: 2022-11 E), which was carried out in compliance with the Helsinki Declaration. Additionally, patients and/or patients’ families provided informed consent to participate in our research. The patients were all monitored for the duration of the study. Adult patients (>18 years old) with a confirmed cancer diagnosis met the inclusion criteria. Patients with no pathological confirmation, who were non-recipients of chemotherapy, who had incomplete records, who lost during follow-up, and those without consent to participate were excluded. Study variables: The variables included in this research included patient demographics (age and gender), diagnosis year, concurrent comorbidities, cancer location and stage (metastatic and non-metastatic), treatment intent, delay before initiating chemotherapy, chemotherapy regimens and agents, antiemetic use, and drug side-effects manifestation. The study’s dependent variables were delineated by WHO prescribing, patient care, and health facility indicators,11 with socio-demographic traits (age and gender) acting as predictor variables. Metrics such as the average number of drugs per encounter and the percentages of drugs named generically, encounters involving drug prescription, as well as prescribed drugs from the essential drugs list were computed to provide a granular insight into prescribing trends. Study outcome: This study primarily evaluated the prescribing trends of anticancer drugs. Statistical analysis: Upon concluding the study, the WHO core prescribing indicators were compiled to ascertain the prevalence of polypharmacy, the proportion of prescriptions entailing injectables, and the percentage of drugs enlisted on the EML. All statistical evaluations were conducted using IBM SPSS software (version 22, Armonk, IBM Corp, Armonk, NY). Continuous variables were depicted as mean values and standard deviations, while categorical variables were illustrated through frequency and percentage. Data normalcy was gauged using the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test. A p-value of less than 0.05 was acknowledged as statistically noteworthy.