Patient Compliance with Oral Etoposide for Lung Cancer
Author Information
Author(s): C.R. Lee, P.W. Nicholson, R.L. Souhami, M.L. Slevin, M.R. Hall, A.A. Deshmukh
Primary Institution: Department of Pharmaceutics, The School of Pharmacy
Hypothesis
Does the use of an electronically monitored tablet bottle improve patient compliance with oral etoposide in small cell lung cancer?
Conclusion
Inadequate compliance with oral chemotherapy is unlikely to significantly affect clinical response in patients with small cell lung cancer.
Supporting Evidence
- The overall compliance (OC) was 93.2% over 25 treatment periods.
- The study monitored patients for a total of 298 days.
- The compliance assessment revealed no significant association between overall compliance and irregularity indices.
Takeaway
The study used a special bottle to track if patients took their cancer medicine as prescribed, and found that most patients did a good job of following their treatment.
Methodology
Patients' compliance was monitored using an electronically recorded tablet bottle over 25 treatment periods.
Potential Biases
Patients were aware they were part of a study, which may have influenced their compliance.
Limitations
Two patients did not return their bottles, and the study was limited to a small sample size.
Participant Demographics
11 male and 3 female patients with a mean age of 62.4 years.
Statistical Information
P-Value
p<0.001
Statistical Significance
p<0.05
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