Publication:

Prescribing pattern of anticancer drugs in the medical oncology department of a tertiary care teaching hospital

Background To study drug utilization of anticancer drugs in the oncology inpatient department (IPD) of Kamineni Hospitals, L.B. Nagar, Hyderabad, India.

Methods One hundred prescription records were screened and analysed as per the study parameters from the oncology IPD of Kamineni Hospitals, Hyderabad. Commonly used anticancer drugs were recorded; furthermore, different types of carcinomas were noted.

Results Age group of patients was in between 04 and 80 years, 62 were females and 38 were male patients. The most common type of carcinoma was carcinoma of the breast (28%). Cisplatin was the most commonly used anticancer drug (29%). Adjuvant drugs were used in 98% of the patients.

Conclusions Incidence of cancer is more in females than males. Adjuvant and cytoprotective drugs used may have had a bearing on the relatively lower incidence of adverse effects.