Drug-drug interactions rife among patients with haematologic malignancy

A recent study has shown the prevalence of drug-drug interactions (DDIs) among hospitalized patients with haematologic malignancies, with the occurrence increasing alongside the number of medications administered.

Two hundred patients with haematologic malignancies who were receiving at least four concurrent medications were included in this prospective interventional study conducted at a referral centre.

A pharmacist initially compiled a list of all medications through patient interviews and medication reviews, as well as identified and categorized potential DDIs using the Lexi-interact and Micromedex databases. The clinical impact of DDIs in each patient was assessed by the clinical pharmacist, who also provided appropriate interventions to resolve them.

A total of 1,281 DDIs were identified across 337 distinct types. More than half of these DDIs had major severity (52.1 percent) and pharmacokinetic mechanisms (50.3 percent), with an unspecified onset (79.4 percent) and fair evidence (67 percent).

Most of these DDIs (81.1 percent) were deemed clinically significant, prompting 1,059 pharmacotherapy interventions by the pharmacist. Furthermore, the number of drugs used during hospitalization showed a significant association with the occurrence of DDIs (p<0.001; r=0.633).

“The intervention of a clinical pharmacist is crucial to evaluate the clinical impact of these DDIs and implement effective interventions for their management,” the authors said.