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ASHP's 43rd Midyear Clinical Meeting & Exhibition

December 7 - 11, 2008
Orlando, FL

At the largest international meeting of pharmacists focusing on improving patient care, Sharon Paik, Vice President with Ipsos Marketing, defended a poster on understanding colony-stimulating factor use and febrile neutropenia hospitalizations among oncology patients receiving chemotherapy treatment in U.S. health-system outpatient clinincs. Entitled Opportunity for Pharmacist Intervention to Improve Clinical Care and Outcome, Sharon co-presented the study methodology and results with Amgen.

An estimated 60,000 neutropenia-related hospitalizations secondary to chemotherapy treatment still occur annually in the United States (US) although the incidence is not well characterized. Evidence-based clinical guidelines for FN-prophylaxis from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and the American Society of Clinical Oncology, recommend primary FN-prophylaxis with a colony-stimulating factor (CSF) in patients undergoing myelosuppressive chemotherapy when the FN risk is approximately 20% or higher, based on age, medical history, disease characteristics, and myelotoxicity of the chemotherapy regimen. The objective of this analysis was to obtain a baseline understanding of CSF utilization and FN hospitalization incidence among oncology patients receiving chemotherapy treatment in health-system outpatient clinics, as a means to determine if there are additional opportunities for pharmacist intervention to improve clinical care and patient outcome.

The study conclusions found that:

  • First-cycle CSF use in hospital outpatient clinics studied remains low among patients meeting guideline criteria for primary prophylaxis of FN.
    • Greater than 40% of patients who received a moderate-to-high (= 17%) FN risk chemotherapy regimen never received a CSF.
    • Under-utilization of primary prophylaxis with a CSF for myelosuppressive chemotherapy, relative to guideline recommendations, may be associated with the relatively high rate of FN hospitalization observed.
  • Current practice represents an opportunity for pharmacist intervention to reduce the relatively high incidence of FN hospitalizations observed among patients undergoing chemotherapy treatment.
  • Ensuring that all patients meeting guideline criteria for FN prophylaxis receive a CSF beginning with their first cycle of chemotherapy may help improve patient outcomes.

To learn more about this poster and the Ipsos Marketing research, please contact
Sharon Paik.

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