5 Benefits of Personalized Dose Management
Posted by Keith Galloway on Fri, Oct 09, 2009 @ 07:48 AM
A personalized approach to dose management has multiple benefits for chemotherapy patients and the oncologists who treat them. These benefits include:
More accurate dosing. Personalized dose management begins with testing of actual drug blood levels in patients. Blood tests offer oncologists a more precise tool than body surface area (BSA) for determining the most appropriate drug dosage for a given patient. With the test results, oncologists can better determine whether an individual cancer patient is receiving a dose within the optimal range - high enough to incur a response but low enough to prevent severe side effects or toxicity. With this approach, oncologists can assess treatment and make the critical adjustments to dosage should a patient require them.
In a recently published study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, 85% of colorectal patients treated with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) were found to be outside the optimal range when dosed by the standard dosing method - Body Surface Area (BSA). Surprisingly, 68% of patients were underdosed, resulting in sub-optimal therapeutic response with a higher chance of developing drug resistance and disease progression. The other 17% were overdosed, leading to debilitating toxic side effects that can result in treatment delay or termination. Only 15% of patients received the optimal dose of 5-FU to combat their disease.
Better clinical response. With more precise dosing and better dose management over time, oncologists and patients can expect a more positive response to chemotherapy treatment. In the study cited above, , patients receiving pharmacokinetic dose management of 5-FU for colon cancer had nearly double the positive response compared to patients treated by BSA dosing. The patients who underwent blood testing and dose adjustments based on those tests had a reduction in tumor size of at least 50 percent.
Fewer toxic side effects. Personalized dose management reduces the likelihood of both unintentional over-dosing and under-dosing of chemotherapy drugs-common challenges to oncologists. Even patients whose oncologists prescribe dose increases based on blood testing may be less likely to experience toxic effects. In the same study of colon cancer patients described above, recipients of personalized treatment had lower incidences of common chemotherapy toxicities such as diarrhea, mucositis, and blood disease.
Greater survival rates. Higher rates of positive response to chemotherapy treatment translate into greater efficacy and better outcomes. These outcomes may include reduced tumor size, longer periods of progression-free disease, and lower rates of recurrence. The evidence suggests that personalized dose management can boost survival rates, adding months, if not years, to patients' lives.
Better quality of life. In addition to improved survival rates, personalized dose management can enhance patient life quality in several ways. The more accurate dose management achieved through pharmacokinetics may reduce the incidence and severity of toxic side-effects, improving well-being during and after treatment, and reduce the need for medical interventions , supportive medications, and frequent or long hospital stays.