Frequency and Duration of Adverse Drug Reactions in Patients Receiving Anticancer Combination Therapy at Cancer Hospital Jamshoro, Pakistan

The objectives of this study are to evaluate adverse drug reactions, their frequency and duration reported by patients on anticancer combination therapy, as their early detection will help health professionals to manage them and improve quality of life of patients. A prospective observational study was conducted by enrolling a total of 800 patients via purposive sampling from February 2015-August 2017 at Cancer Hospital Jamshoro Pakistan. Patient's information was collected from patient's medication record file including their demographic and diagnostic parameters as well as patient response on ADRs was recorded and verified against British National Formulary (2017) and LexiComp Drug Information Handbook (2015). Among 800 patients majority were females (86.625%), suffering from breast cancer 65%, a total of 23 ADRs reported by both male and female patients in which most common were fatigue (83.75%), emesis (80%) and alopecia (75.625%). Duration of non hematologic ADRs was approximately 34 days in majority of the patients, whereas in few patients up to 7 days. Present study shows that patients on combination regimen are at higher risk of developing ADRs as well as these persist for a long duration affecting patient's health, life style and also therapy goals if does not managed on early basis.