Polypharmacy and comorbidities in veteran patients with end-stage cancer

20560 Background: Polypharmacy increases the risk of drug-drug interactions, adverse drug reactions, noncompliance and treatment costs. Age and comorbidities are correlated with a higher incidence of polypharmacy. There is very limited data on polypharmacy in end-stage cancer patients. Methods: Tumor registry data of 1570 patients diagnosed at GV Montgomery VAMC between 2005–2007 were reviewed. Computerized pharmacy and medical records of 148 patients with metastatic cancer with survival of 1year survival were excluded (these included mostly prostate cancer, lymphoma and head/neck cancer). Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data. Results: The mean age of the study population was 66 years (range; 44–88) with 99% male. Lung (99), colorectal (14) and pancreas (14) cancer were the most common cancers diagnosed. Patients had an average of three (range 0–8) comorbid conditions; hypertension, COPD, coronary artery disease an...