Tine Van Nieuwenhuyse, Birgit Tans, David Devolder,
Isabel Spriet.
Hospital Pharmacy Department, UZ Leuven, Leuven,
Belgium. Department of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological
Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Objective/purpose: Healthcare professionals,
involved in the daily care of cancer patients, are
faced with the growing issue using oral anticancer
drugs in patients experiencing swallowing difficulties.
The lack of commercially available oral liquid dosing
forms might compromise initiating or prolonging
necessary therapies in this patient population.
Pharmacists are often challenged to provide liquid
alternatives for oral drugs that have solely been
made commercially as a solid formulation; therefore,
it is common practice to crush tablets or to prepare
oral liquids from solid forms.
When preparing liquids ex tempore, a number of
requirements need to be fulfilled. In addition to chemical, physical and microbiological stability of the
active ingredients, therapeutic and toxicological
aspects should be the subject of review.
The goal was to develop a guide for healthcare providers in order to assist them in providing scientific
and up-to-date information for patients who are in
need of special dosing forms.
Study design/methods: A literature search in
PubMed/Medline was conducted. Also, the registration documents and relevant phase I and II data
from the pharmaceutical industry, U.S. Food and
Drug Administration and European Medicines
Agency were used as a source of information.
Results/key findings: An overview for healthcare
providers was drafted. Sixty-two oral anticancer
drugs that were available on the Belgian market at
the moment of the development were included.
Conclusion/recommendations: The development of a
pocket guideline has increased the awareness and
will be added to the standard of care as to improve
safe medication use in patients with swallowing
difficulties.
Selected abstracts presented at the XVI Symposium of the
International Society of Oncology Pharmacy Practitioners
April 26-29, 2017, Budapest, Hungary
J Oncol Pharm Practice 2017, Vol. 23 4(Supplement) 1–21.
