Pharmaceutical interventions to improve safety of chemotherapy-treated cancer patients: A cross-sectional study:

PurposeCancer chemotherapy is a high-risk process. To improve patient safety, a systematic pharmaceutical analysis of chemotherapy prescriptions is performed in our institution. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of pharmaceutical interventions (PIs) on the safety of patient chemotherapy prescriptions.MethodsThis prospective cross-sectional study was conducted in an 800-bed university hospital with oncology departments. All chemotherapy prescriptions were included and PIs were collected prospectively during one month. The clinical impact of PIs was scored by an expert panel of oncologists and pharmacists, using the Hatoum scale. Univariate and multivariate analysis were conducted to identify factors associated with a higher frequency of PIs.ResultsOf 1346 prescriptions included, 129 required a PI (9.6% (95% CI: 8.1–11.4)). Most PIs were scored as having at least a significant impact for patient safety (69.8% (95% CI: 60.4–76.9)). The frequency of PIs was significantly associated with tumour si...