Adverse events due to chemotherapy in emergency room

Abstract

e20701 Background: High rates of mortality due to cancer make necessary improve oncologic treatments. Relationship between adverse events and chemotherapy schedule and dose is well known thanks to large observational studies. Our study´s objective is to estimate the prevalence of chemotherapy adverse events in oncologic patients attended in Emergency room. Methods: From October 2007 to October 2008 560 patients were recollected. It was revised tumors location and stage, chemotherapy schedule and date of the last treatment, diagnosis and therapheutic in Emergency. Results: 87 of the 560 patients (15%) were attended in Emergency room because of chemotherapy toxicity. The most common cause of consultation was fever (27 patients, 31%) followed by diarrhea (18 patients, 20.7%) and nausea-vomiting (12 patients, 13.8%). Most of the patients were being treated with classic chemotherapy schedules (70.1%). Comparing as a whole all the chemotherapy schedules there were not statistically significant differences due to toxicity between them. Nevertheless analyzing by subgroups we found there was no difference between toxicity in patients treated with classic chemotherapy and chemotherapy plus target agents (33.8% vs 5.5%, p=0.30), but there was differences between chemotherapy and target agents in monotherapy (33.8% vs 13.2%, p<0.05). In 39 of the 87 patients (39%) admission was required with a good evolution in most of them. Conclusions: Adverse events due to chemotherapy is a common cause of consultation in Emergency room. In our sample new target agents did not add toxicity to classic chemotherapy and given as monotherapy they had really good tolerance. More randomized studies are necessary to do a better evaluation of adverse events due to new agents. No significant financial relationships to disclose.