Abstract
ABSTRACT Aim: Number of patients stopping their anticancer drug due to its side effects varies across several cancers and countries in EU5; this may influence patient outcomes. This study describes cessation of anticancer drugs due to its side effects in clinical practice across EU5. Methods: IMS Oncology Analyzer™ (OA) was used for this study, a patient database collected quarterly through a physician panel survey. OA reports on patient history information related to their treatment across all cancers. Most recent data (Jan-Dec 2013) was used. As patients can experience multiple side effects these numbers may be over 100%. Patients selected for this study have discontinued their therapy due to side effects exclusively. Results: From a sample of 7899 patients, 531 were identified as having their anti-cancer drug treatment stopped due to its side effects. Among them, 461 (87%) were on a cytotoxic drug and 70 (13%) on a hormonal. Overall, patients were mainly diagnosed with Breast (22%), Colorectal (CRC) (14%), and Non Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) (13%). Main side effects for those patients were neutropenia (36%), nausea/vomiting (23%), anaemia (21%), neuropathy (17%) and mucositis (15%). Among patients that stopped taking their anti-cancer drug due to side effects: · Breast cancer: 57% received cytotoxics and 43% hormonals. Common side effects for stopping cytotoxic drugs were neutropenia at 43% and pain for hormonals at 59%. Drugs causing cessation included anastrazole (16%), letrozole (11%) and tamoxifen (11%). · CRC: patients received capecitabine/oxaliplatin (29%), 5FU/oxaliplatin (16%) and capecitabine (14%). Main side effects included neutropenia (53%), diarrhea (39%), neuropathy (39%) and nausea/vomiting (24%). · NSCLC: patients received cisplatin/pemetrexed (29%), and cisplatin/vinorelbine (19%). The main reason for cessation was nausea/vomiting (37%), neutropenia (29%) and anaemia (22%). Conclusions: 7% of cancer patients across EU5 countries stopped taking their anti-cancer drug due to its side effects. Despite the availability of supportive care treatments, there is still a need to improve management of side effects to enable better patient outcomes. Disclosure: All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.
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