Clinical and economic benefits of a pharmacist in a multidisciplinary team for Chinese outpatients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors

doi:10.5246/jcps.2021.07.048

Abstract

Abstract:

The multidisciplinary approach is beneficial to the treatment of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs). However, pharmacists are seldom incorporated into a multidisciplinary team (MDT) of GIST. In the present study, we evaluated the clinical and economic benefits of a pharmacist in an MDT of GIST. This was a retrospective study that included 240 GIST patients receiving imatinib therapy. The GIST MDT pharmacist developed and validated an HPLC method to monitor the trough concentrations of imatinib in GIST patients. Besides, the pharmacist also provided patient education and pharmaceutical care services and collected the data for analysis. The 240 GIST patients received the services provided by the pharmacist. The trough concentrations in 25.42% of the 240 patients were less than 1100 ng/mL. The main genotypes of 121 in the 240 patients were KIT exon 11 mutations, wild type, and KIT exon 9 mutations. Moreover, 13 GIST patients with trough concentrations less than 1100 ng/mL were confirmed to have low compliance. The adverse reactions were primarily mild and tolerable, except that 13 GIST patients were adjusted to lower doses because of the intolerable adverse reactions. The daily cost could be lowered by monitoring the trough concentrations and dose reductions. Collectively, a pharmacist included in a GIST MDT could increase the compliance of Chinese GIST patients to imatinib therapy and improve the efficacy, safety, and economy of imatinib therapy.

Key words: Pharmacist, Imatinib, Multidisciplinary team, Gastrointestinal stromal tumor, Trough concentration

Supporting:

Yi Zhou, Xingye Wu, Juan Li, Wei Cheng, Xiaosong Li, Yifan Shen, Jun Zhang. Clinical and economic benefits of a pharmacist in a multidisciplinary team for Chinese outpatients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors[J]. Journal of Chinese Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2021, 30(7): 598-605.

Figures/Tables 5

References 20

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