Major drug–drug Interactions occur in hospitalized solid tumour cancer patients

A clinical pharmacy service that provides relevant pharmacotherapy consultations may be beneficial to hospitalized solid tumour cancer patients to prevent potentially serious concerns caused by moderate or major drug–drug interactions, suggests a recent study.

This cross-sectional study detected, documented, and descriptively analysed the potential drug–drug interactions in solid tumour patients admitted to a Middle Eastern referral oncology–haematology University-affiliated hospital.

The investigators reviewed the medical records of these patients admitted to the referral oncological centre in Isfahan, Iran, during the 6 months period (2018). Those who had received at least two chemotherapy or nonchemotherapy drugs simultaneously were included. The potential drug–drug interactions between chemotherapy and nonchemotherapy drugs were assessed using Lexi-Interact ver.1.1 online software.

A total of 141 cancer patients were included in the analysis and had their drug therapy regimen evaluated. Overall, 227 drug–drug interactions with moderate or major severity were detected. Of these, 96 interactions were in category C, while 71, 32, and 28 were in category D, B, and X, respectively.

At least one potential drug–drug interaction during hospitalization occurred in 114 patients (80.8 percent). More than half of these interactions (56.4 percent) were pharmacodynamics. The interaction between granisetron and metoclopramide (11.4 percent) was frequently encountered, while that between docetaxel and carboplatin most frequently occurred between oncology medications (2.6 percent of total drug–drug interactions).