Role of pharmacists in adherence in oncology patients

Adherence is the degree to which the patient’s behaviour and actions correspond to the physician’s established treatment regimen regarding timing, dose and frequency. Patient counselling by both oncologists and pharmacists and optimization of the therapeutic regimen can critically impact decision-making and adherence to therapy. We performed a two-step study to identify factors influencing adherence to therapy from the perspective of oncology hospital pharmacists in Bulgaria. The results show that the major factors affecting anticancer therapy adherence are the manifestation of adverse drug reactions and distrust in therapy. These could be overcome with improved communication between patients, oncologists and pharmacists on therapy aspects and more active involvement of the hospital pharmacists in therapy monitoring with a main focus on identifying possible drug-related problems based on safety profile, drug-drug interactions and non-adherence