Monitoring of side effects and assessment of febrile neutropenia risk by the patient risk score (PRS) in cancer patients used granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF)

Febrile neutropenia is the most important dose-limiting side effect of chemotherapy. Although the international treatment guidelines recommend prophylactic use of G-CSF in chemotherapy protocols with a risk of febrile neutropenia (FN) is >20%; the guidelines indicate that physicians should evaluate the patients according to the individual risk factors and G-CSF therapy should be initiated if needed in protocols with a risk of FN is 10-20%. The aim of this study is; to assess the FN risk by the PRS in patients and monitor specificed side effects by a clinical pharmacist on each chemotherapy cycle. The study was conducted between May 15th-November 15th 2017 at the Hacettepe University Oncology Hospital Medical Oncology outpatient clinic. The patients who received chemotherapy protocols of a FN risk is 10-20% and >20% and initiated G-CSF by physicians were included in the study and each patient was followed for 3 months by a clinic pharmacist. A total of 118 patients were included and 286 interviews were conducted in the study. There was a statistically significant increase found between the first interview and the second follow-up on the PRS scores of patients (p=0.034). According to the guidelines, 34.7% of patients were classified as 'under/ insufficient', 22.8% as 'over / unnecessary' and 42.3% as 'correct / proper' prophylaxis for the G-CSF use. It was observed that G-CSF-related musculoskeletal pain was increased on the 2nd and 3rd days of treatment. As a result, the PRS is easy to use and an appropriate assessment system in term of identifying particularly inadequate or unnecessary G-CSF prophylaxis in clinical practice. Assessment of monitoring of patient-reported side effects by clinical pharmacists will maintain the success of patient-focused and multidisciplinary care services in oncology practices.