A Study on Prescribing Patterns of Monoclonal Antibodies on Cancer Patients in a Teaching Hospital of Central India

The targeted anti cancer therapies include Monoclonal antibodies and Small molecules, for example tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Biologic therapy with Monoclonal Antibodies includes Rituximab, Trastuzumab, Bevacizumab, Alemtuzumab, Cetuximab, Panitumumab etc. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the Monoclonal antibodies drug prescription patterns in cancer hospital and to generate data on the extent of rational/irrational prescribing in this institute. It was a hospital based prospective observational study with follow up during the study period. Feedback from the study would help both the prescriber and institutional authorities to review their prescribing practices and modify if necessary to facilitate better health care delivery. In our study, Out of the 15 subjects, 9 were males (60%) and 6 were females (40%). Majority of the study subjects were in the age group 51-60 years (40%) followed by >60 years age group (26.6%). Out of 15 patients, 3 patients on Bevacizumab, 2 patients on Cetuximab, 5 patients on Nimotuzumab, 4 patients on Rituximab and 1 patients on Trastuzumab therapy. Out of these, 2 patients on Monoclonal antibody monotherapy, 2 patients on Monoclonal antibody along with radiotherapy (RT), 6 patients on Monoclonal antibody along with chemotherapy (CT) and 5 patients on Monoclonal antibody along with chemoradiotherapy (CRT).