Adverse drug reactions associated with the use of anticancer drugs are a worldwide problem and cannot be ignored.
Adverse drug reactions can range from
nausea,
vomiting or any other mild reaction to severe myelosuppression. The study was planned to observe the suspected
adverse drug reactions of
cancer chemotherapy in patients aged >18 years having
cancer attending Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh. During the study period, 101 patients of
breast cancer and 73 patients of
lung cancer were screened for occurrence of
adverse drug reactions during their treatment with
chemotherapy. About 87.36% patients experienced
adverse drug reactions, 90.09% and 83.56% of breast and
lung cancer patients experienced at least one
adverse drug reaction respectively. In
breast cancer patients, 41.58% patients were prescribed
fluorouracil+
doxorubicin+
cyclophosphamide while
paclitaxel was prescribed to 22.77% patients.
Alopecia (54.94%), nail discolouration (43.96%),
dysgeusia (38.46%),
anorexia (30.77%),
nausea (29.67%), and neuropathy (29.67%) were found to be very common in
breast cancer patients treated with single/combined regimen. In
lung cancer group of patients,
cisplatin with
docetaxel,
cisplatin with
pemetrexed and
cisplatin with
irinotecan were prescribed to 30.14, 24.65 and 17.81% patients, respectively.
Dysgeusia (40.98%), diarrhoea (39.34%),
anorexia (32.77%) and
constipation (31.15%) and
alopecia (31.15%) were commonly observed
adverse drug reactions having
lung cancer patients. Causality assessments using World Health Organization causality assessment scale showed that observed
adverse drug reactions were of probable (64.67%) and possible (35.33%) categories.
Alopecia,
dysgeusia,
anorexia,
constipation diarrhoea,
nausea, nail discoloration were more prevalent amongst the
cancer patients undergoing
chemotherapy.