Dose Management: Its Effect on Chemotherapy Side Effects
Posted by Keith Galloway on Wed, Jan 27, 2010 @ 08:13 AM
One of the key benefits of personalized dose management is a reduction in chemotherapy side effects, which enhances patients' treatment and quality of life.
Dose management lessens the risk of severe toxicity and side effects in two ways. First, it enables the oncologist to more accurately prescribe the most appropriate dose to an individual patient rather than a standard dose. Second, it gives the doctor a tool to measure and adjust dosage over time to ensure that blood drug levels remain optimal but never get too high.
Research has demonstrated the impact of dose management on patient side effects. In a 2008 study, colorectal cancer patients whose treatment was based on the testing of blood drug levels had fewer severe side effects typically associated with the drug 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). Patients given adjusted rather than fixed doses were far less likely to suffer from Grade 3 / 4 (the most severe) diarrhea, one of the most common side effects of 5-FU and other chemotherapy agents. Researchers also noted a reduction in hematologic toxicity.
Dose management based on testing of blood drug levels also has the potential to lessen severe side effects of busulfan, a common chemotherapeutic agent. Busulfan is often used with patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for cancers of the blood and immune system. Because it is a high-dose regimen busulfan can cause veno-occlusive disease, among other serious side effects. But with timely testing and careful management of busulfan blood levels, oncologists can better manage dosing and minimize the risks of this critical treatment.
As the impact of blood drug level testing and dose management on chemotherapy side effects become more widely known and incorporated into clinical practice, oncologists can more successfully balance efficacy against those effects.