Background: Gefitinib is a first-generation epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKI). It was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for clinical use in 2003. However, gefitinib has only come to China in recent years. Previous studies have not compared the efficacy and safety of domestic and imported gefitinib. Therefore, we conducted this study. Methods: This study included 227 patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who received
Background: Postoperative analgesia is widely used for patients undergoing major surgeries. Individual differences in genetic polymorphisms may be obstructive factors for accurately anesthetics using. However, the equation for predicting sufentanil dosage postoperatively based on genetic design has been established yet. Our
Introduction
Opioid-tolerant patients are more likely to deviate from recommended treatments and to experience inadequate analgesia than opioid-naive ones. The aim of this study was to examine whether pharmacist-led management could help improve treatment adherence and quality of life.
Methods
Eligible patients were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to control group and intervention group. The control group received routine education and support, while the intervention group received additional individualized pharmacist-led care. The primary endpoint was treatment adherence in the per-protocol analysis, as evaluated by blinded assessors. An interim analysis was planned when 30% patients completed the study. Alpha was divided into the interim analysis (0.015) and the final analysis (0.035).
Results
In the interim analysis (97 and 87 patients in the control and intervention groups, respectively), the primary endpoint was met. Pharmacist-led intervention significantly increased treatment adherence (93.3 vs. 79.8%; OR: 2.25; 95% CI 1.02, 4.94;
P
= 0.013), quality of life (0.81 ± 0.17 vs. 0.72 ± 0.25;
P
= 0.008), and reporting of adverse events (82.7 vs. 61.9%; OR: 1.88; 95% CI 1.16, 3.07;
P
= 0.004). The two groups did not differ in pain control rate (66.7 vs. 57.1%; OR: 1.25; 95% CI 0.87, 1.78;
P
= 0.218), breakthrough pain-free rate (66.7 vs. 61.9%; OR: 1.12; 95% CI 0.78, 1.59;
P
= 0.532) and pain score (1.97 ± 1.04 vs. 2.15 ± 1.24;
P
= 0.522).
Conclusions
Pharmacist-led management improved treatment adherence, quality of life, and the reporting of adverse events in opioid-tolerant patients with cancer pain.
Trial Registration
ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03455023.
Supplementary Information
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40122-021-00342-0.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.