Survey of Pharmacists' Involvement in Cancer Treatment in Cancer Medicine Cooperation Base and General Hospitals

Abstract

Backgrounds: The role of pharmacists in clinical oncology has grown every year, however, pharmacists' involvement in cancer care has not been revealed on a nationwide scale yet. Methods: The subjects were 388 cancer medicine cooperation base hospitals (core hospitals) and 984 randomly selected general hospitals. The questionnaire was conducted for the regimen regarding 13 different regimens that treat 5 major forms of cancer (breast, colorectal, gastric, liver, and lung cancer) in Japan. Results: The recovery rate was 70% (274/388) at the core hospitals and 43% (428/984) at the general hospitals. The core hospitals had more oncologists and pharmacists who had professional qualifications. The overall percentage of facilities that checked chemotherapy regimens in inpatient and in outpatient infusion by pharmacists was 98% (270/274) and 99% (272/274) at the core hospitals and 99% (425/428) and 98% (420/428) at the general hospitals, respectively. The overall percentage of facilities in which pharmacists checked oral chemotherapy regimens in prescriptions in hospitals or out of hospitals was 55% (153/274) and 10% (30/274) at the core hospitals and 67% (286/428) and 17% (74/428) at the general hospitals, respectively. Of the 13 different regimens, the cases of using improper doses or intervals of drug administration were 40% at the core hospitals and 52% at the general hospitals. The median number of cases was 1 (range 0-15) in the core hospitals and 1 (range 0-22) in the general hospitals. Conclusions: The results revealed that pharmacists' interventions to check chemotherapy regimens and rates of improper regimens were not significantly different between the core hospitals and the general hospitals. However, in both hospitals there was only a 50% regimen check rate in oral chemotherapy, and in both hospitals the rate was lower in outpatient chemotherapy (10%).