BMJ  2007;334:376 (24 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.39128.449317.BE

Editorials

Prescribing oral chemotherapy

Standardised dosing can improve the safety of prescribing

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The use of oral anticancer agents for the treatment of common malignancies has increased over the past few years. Of about 300 new anticancer agents in development, 20-25% are oral products.1 Many novel "target agents" such as inhibitors of the epidermal growth factor receptor (for example, erlotinib) and the vascular endothelial growth factor receptors (for example, sunitinib and sorafenib) are given orally. Patients prefer oral agents because they are more convenient, allow greater autonomy, and avoid venepuncture and the associated risks of indwelling venous catheters.2

Despite the advantages of oral anticancer agents, they do pose challenges such as poor compliance, a small but definite risk of unintentional overdose, and a greater risk of drug-drug and drug-food interactions.3 In this week's BMJ, Weingart and colleagues evaluate the safety practices of 62 National Cancer Institute designated centres in the United States with regard to prescribing oral chemotherapy.4 Such institutions would be . . . [Full text of this article]

Sandeep D Parsad, clinical haematology and oncology pharmacist, Mark J Ratain, Leon O Jacobson professor of medicine

Department of Medicine, Section of Haematology/Oncology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA

sandeep.parsad@uchospitals.edu


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Relevant Article

Oral chemotherapy safety practices at US cancer centres: questionnaire survey
Saul N Weingart, Jonathan Flug, Daniela Brouillard, Laurinda Morway, Ann Partridge, Sylvia Bartel, Lawrence N Shulman, and Maureen Connor
BMJ 2007 334: 407. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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