Usefulness of Tracing Reports Based on Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events in Outpatient Cancer Chemotherapy

Abstract

We have developed a new tool for sharing information of patients undergoing outpatient cancer chemotherapy with community pharmacists. We created the Tracing Report (TR) based on CTCAE which suggests high risk adverse events according to the chemotherapy. In this study, we observe the changes in the information obtained from community pharmacists and the utilization of the information by hospital pharmacists due to the change from the conventional free- form TR to the CTCAE-form TR. The subject is 164 tracing reports received from community pharmacists between September 2018 and August 2020 at Toho University Medical Center Omori Hospital. We retrospectively investigated the patient background, the percentage of statements about the occurrence of adverse events, and the rate of physician adoption of prescription suggestions from community pharmacists. We also sent a questionnaire to the community pharmacists to evaluate the usefulness of the CTCAE Form TR. Of the 164 tracing reports received, 40 were free-form TR and 124 were CTCAE-form TR. The results showed that the report rate of adverse drug reactions was significantly higher for the CTCAE Form TR in all categories. Hospital pharmacists aggregate information from tracing reports and suggest supportive care to physicians, and the number of physician adoptions was significantly higher in the CTCAE Form TR than in the Free Form TR. 95 ％ of the community pharmacists rated the CTCAE Form TR as being easier to use than the conventional free-form TR. Information sharing using the CTCAE Form TR can contribute to safe outpatient cancer chemotherapy.