PATTERN OF ADVERSE DRUG REACTIONS OF ANTICANCER DRUGS IN ONCOLOGY UNIT OF A TERTIARY CARE TEACHING HOSPITAL IN SOUTH WEST, NIGERIA
Danbatta A1*, Musa A1, Adeyemi O2
1.Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, Bayero University Kano, Nigeria
2.Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Biopharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lagos
Afr. J Pharm Res Dev; Volume 8(2): 100-107; Nov/Dec 2016
ABSTRACT
The work was aimed at studying the pattern of ADRs due to chemotherapeutic agents with specific objective to assess the causality, severity and management of these reactions in a tertiary care hospital, South West Nigeria. This was a retrospective descriptive study. Medical records of patients were studied with patient details, adverse drug reactions (ADR) and medications used to manage the reactions recorded using the designed ADR data collection form. The ADRs were assessed for causality and severity using the Naranjo and Hartwig assessment scales respectively. A total of 433 ADRs were recorded from 170 patients of which 96 (56.47%) were females and 74 (43.53%) were males. Most common cancers encountered were breast (25.30%), colorectal (21.20%), cervical (10.00%) and prostate (10.00%). Nausea/vomiting (21.50%) accounted for the most ADRs followed by alopecia (17.10%). Antimetabolites (28.00%) and platinum compounds (24.00%) were the most implicated drug classes causing ADRs. Naranjo causality assessment scale showed (66.48%) of the reactions to be “possible” and (33.52%) to be “probable” while the Hartwig severity assessment scale revealed majority of the reactions to be “moderate” (63.50%), followed by “mild” (35.11%) and “severe” (1.39%). Medications commonly prescribed for the management of the reactions were ondansetron, proton pump inhibitors, dexamethasone, chlorpheniramine and metoclopramide. The study revealed high incidence of ADRs with chemotherapeutic agents. The prevalence of ADRs was considerably high in spite of the use of existing premedications. Most of the ADRs were found not reported using the pharmacovigilance system, leading to under reporting. As such, health care givers should be educated to look out for such, with emphasis to employ strategies to prevent, minimize and manage ADRs of cytotoxics with peculiar side effects. The knowledge will serve to prevent similar reactions in the future by rational and judicious use of preventive measures to decrease human suffering and economic burden to the patients and society.
KEYWORDS: Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs), Chemotherapy, Causality, Pharmacovigilance
*Corresponding Author: abubakars2002@yahoo.com