Analysis of Clinical Pharmacist Reported Adverse Drug Reactions from Oncology Department in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Adverse drugs reactions (ADRs) are noxious, unintended, and undesirable effects that occur as a result of drug treatment at doses normally used in man for diagnosis, prophylaxis, and treatment.

Due to the limitations of clinical trials, it is not possible to have a complete knowledge regarding all ADRs at the time of drug approval, necessitating drug safety follow-ups after releasing to the market. Pharmacovigilance has been defined as a science regarding the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of ADRs, with its ultimate goal being improving pharmacotherapy. The most important finding of this study is the significant improvement in ADR reporting after education and establishment of Pharmacovigilance Centers.

In this study we collected and analyzed the adverse drug reactions reported by clinical pharmacist from oncology department to pharmacovigilance, 101 adverse drug reaction cases were reported from oncology to pharmacovigilance for a period of 11 months (September 2014-july 2015).

It was found that out of 101 cases, 51 males (50.49%) and 50 females (49, 50%) ADR cases were reported. Among which most reported were from between the age group 60-70 yrs (24 cases with 23.76%) with case of ALL (24 cases with 23.76%) which was treated with L-Asparginase.From the whole study done, itching (24 cases with 23.76%) was the most occurant Adverse Drug Reaction.

As a clinical pharmacist, it is our duty to encourage and educate other healthcare professionals for reporting adverse drug reactions.

We hereby conclude that clinical pharmacy service has an excellent role in designing and conducting the pharmacovigilance system in the hospitals by establishing specified centers with clearly defined objectives and tasks.