Monitoring the Side Effects of Cancer Chemotherapy with Patients-The Participation of Patients in Cancer Therapy and Sharing Patient Information-

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess patient participation in cancer therapy and the sharing of patient information among the medical care team (physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and especially patients). We monitored the side eŠects of cancer chemotherapy with patients, and developed two support tools: One scored the points of subjective symptoms (fatigue, anorexia, nausea, etc) by patients, and the other recorded objective symptoms (clinical examination data) by pharmacists. It is most important that they attend each patient at their bedside. At this time, the trial was evaluated by questionnaire survey by inpatients receiving cancer chemotherapy (n＝15). As a result, all patients (15/15) responded that this trial was necessary. This trial addressed the following: 1) increased communication between patients and medical staŠ concerning side eŠects (14/15), 2) increased interest in side eŠects (10/15), 3) when a patient tells medical staŠ about side eŠects, they act on it (10/15). None of the patients felt inconvenienced by scoring every day (0/ 15), or anxiety about side eŠects (0/15). Furthermore, all patients (15/15) responded that``participation of pharmacists in cancer chemotherapy'' was necessary. This trial revealed no problems and suggested that patients related to the center of medical care. We should be careful in interpreting results of this small sized trial; however, the following conclusions should be reached: 1) introduction of monitoring side eŠects of cancer chemotherapy with patients, 2) develop communication among the medical care team.

Preventive Effects of Low-dose Dexamethasone for Delayed Adverse Events Induced by Carboplatin-based Combination Chemotherapy

“…Seventeen Japanese inpatients with thoracic tumors underwent tri-weekly CBDCA-based combination chemotherapy and participated in monitoring the adverse events 13) in Kagawa University Hospital between April 2005 and September 2006. The characteristics of the subjects are shown in Table 1.…”

“…After obtaining written informed consent, patients conducted the adverse events monitoring using two support tools ( Table 2) modied from the basis of Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events v3.0 (CTCAE v3.0) Japanese translated edition 14) by Japan Clinical Oncology Group/Japan Society of Clinical Oncology during thê rst 10 days after chemotherapy. 13) The grade of subjective symptoms scored by patients were checked by pharmacists to meet the above criteria 14) when they visited the bedside. Subjects meeting any of the following criteria were excluded from this study: 1) Complications inducing nausea and/or emesis (e.g., Table 2.…”