[Safety evaluation of new anticancer chemotherapy administration system: compared to the results from a former...

Anticancer drugs can cause genotoxicities such as mutagenicity and/or chromosomal abnormalities, and/or toxicities, such as fetal malformation or cancer. In recent years, the health risks to health care workers who handle anticancer drugs at work has been considered. In 2009, we researched the exposure risk of anticancer chemotherapy in a nursing administration area using fluorescein (which was used as a contamination detection agent), to identify the problem. The result of this investigation showed that three types of events caused the risk of toxic exposure: 1 . Priming with anticancer drugs; 2 . leakage from the infusion bag when removing the spike from IV containers(exchanging of IV bottle); and 3 . removal of the IV line from the patient without rinsing with normal saline. Taking measures to cope with those problems, we have introduced our new anticancer chemotherapy administration system for prevention against toxic exposure. This system was evaluated in a leak-proof infusion bag by using fluorescein, which was used in our former study. As a result, a leakage reaction has not been detected in any handling events. Although visible leakage of fluorescein is an effective way to identify the exposure risk in an administration area, the analysis is not clear, objective or numerical. Therefore, this system's safety should be assessed with a numerical analysis of the leakage reaction in a further study, such as an environmental contamination research.