Skin disorder management in oral anticancer drugs by collaboration of hospital pharmacists and community pharmacists

BACKGROUND: In Japan, the multidisciplinary team approach in cancer chemotherapy has become quite widespread. However, patients treated with oral anticancer drugs in outpatient clinics usually receive short medical examinations from doctors without any intervention of pharmacists. To improve this medical circumstance, we made a skin disorder manual for community pharmacists and evaluated its feasibility. METHODS: Patients who underwent oral skin toxic chemotherapy from May 1, 2017, to October 31, 2017, were enrolled. The severity of skin toxicities was evaluated based on NCI-CTCAE ver4.0. Skin care and skin disorders were assessed by community pharmacists based on the assessment document arranged by the investigator. Numbers of patients who replied to the assessment, numbers of replies, numbers of assessments and instructions for skin care, and numbers of prescription proposals were evaluated to assess the value of intervention of community pharmacists. RESULTS: Sixty-two patients were enrolled in this study. Community pharmacy responded to 55 patients (88.7%), for a total of 335 replies. The data described in the replies were as follows: 317 assessments of skin disorders (94.6%), 307 assessments of skin care (91.6%), 248 instructions for skin care (74%), and 19 prescription proposals (5.7%). CONCLUSIONS: Community pharmacists have high motivation for prevention and early detection of skin disorders. Although the number of prescription proposals is small, some proposals have contributed to improving side effects. Collaboration of hospital pharmacists and community pharmacists is important for prevention, early detection, and treatment of skin disorders caused by oral anticancer drugs.