Adverse Drug Reactions among Patients with Cancer Undergoing Chemotherapy Following Discharge from the Hospital and the Factors Contributing to Adverse Drug Reactions in Sungai - kolok, Narathiwas Province

Tatchai Tanchaitechawut

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the frequency, severity, and factors contributing to adverse drug reactions among patients with cancer undergoing chemotherapy following discharge from Sungaikolok, Narathiwas province by monitoring, and assessing the severity of adverse drug reactions using the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) version 5.0 by pharmacists. While the data on the factors contributing to adverse drug reactions were assessed by using Chi-square test and Fisher's exact test. The results found that out of 44 samples, 23 samples (52.3 %) had a CA colon diagnosis. They underwent 192 cycles of chemotherapy. FOLFOX4 was the most often used chemotherapeutic treatment (55.2 %). The three most frequent adverse drug reactions, with nearly identical severity levels of 1, were fatigue (43.2 %), hair loss (391.9 %), and nausea (38.5 %). The findings of this study indicated that gender, underlying disease, cancer type, age, marital status, stage of cancer, and chemotherapy regimen were all associated with adverse drug reactions. This study was unable to accurately examine the correlated factors contributing to adverse drug reactions due to the limited number of sample size and chemotherapy treatment cycles. It is crucial for pharmacists to follow patients with cancer undergoing chemotherapy because they can review, manage, and monitor for adverse drug reactions that can be prevented or lessened in the severity level. Consequently, further research needs to be conducted in the future.