DRUG UTILIZATION PATTERN AMONG THE PATIENTS OF LUNG CANCER IN TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL OF NEPAL

Abstract

Objective: Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers in the Nepalese population. Due to the advancement of novel drug regimens and chemotherapeutic treatment guidelines, a proper evaluation of prescriptions is mandatory to prevent unnecessary drug use, which may lead to distress and harm on patient’s health financially and increases morbidity and mortality. Hence, drug utilization study has become an important criterion to implement during the evaluation of prescription and to study the trends of prescribing by prescribers.

Methods: From March 2023 to August 2023, we included 242 adult patients who had received chemotherapy in Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital. A retrospective cross-sectional study was done to evaluate socio-demographic profile of patients and medicines prescribed using the World Health Organization (WHO) prescribing indicators.

Results: The mean age was 58.21±13.22, with 57% (n=138) of the patients being male. The average number of drugs prescribed was 9.28, and 35.95% of the prescription was with antibiotics. Cisplatin (29.34%; n=260) and 5-fluorouracil (14.05; n=34) were among the most frequently prescribed chemotherapeutic agents, and antiulcer drugs (19.23%; n=260) and nutritional supplements (17.6%; n=238) were among the most commonly prescribed adjuvant drugs. 65.49% of the drugs prescribed belonged to the essential drug list, and only 21.228% drugs were prescribed by generic name.

Conclusion: Our study revealed the presence of polypharmacy in lung cancer patients. Prescribing medicines through generic names was found to be low. All WHO prescribing parameters were deviated from the optimal value. Hence, this study suggested that an effective intervention is needed for the rational use of drugs.