Introduction:

Drug-Drug interactions (DDI) may cause considerable adverse drug reactions and potentially lead to an increased or decreased clinical effect of a given drug and increases the cost of management. Cancer patients are at high risk of such DDIs because they commonly receive a high number of drugs concomitantly, including other cytotoxic agents, hormonal agents, targeted agents, and supportive care agents among medication prescribed to treat comorbidities, especially for elderly patients. The objective of this study is to evaluate the incidence of comorbidities and the role of clinical pharmacist in preventing DDIs in a group of cancer patients.

Materials and Methods:

A prospective - observational study was conducted in a multispecialty hospital for a period of 8 months among 100 cancer inpatients of oncology department. DDIs were analyzed using Medscape Drug Interaction checker.

Results:

In this study, 65 DDIs were identified from 100 patients. Of all DDIs, 33.85% were major, 60% were moderate, and 6.15% were minor DDIs. Clinically significant (55.38 %) DDIs were reported and 69.44% of those were accepted and modified accordingly. Furthermore, we observed 50.77% of DDIs between co administered drugs. Elderly people (48%) have more co-morbidity such as diabetes (30%) and hypertension (17.81%).

Conclusion:

This study concluded that DDIs are very common in cancer patients, particularly people with more co morbidities and using multiple medicines. Clinical pharmacist and physicians must work together to extend the practice of preventing DDIs on individual patient management to improve their quality of life.

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