[Oral chemotherapy: food-drug interactions]

oral chemotherapy is increasingly used in Oncology. It has important advantages. such as patient comfort. but it also brings new challenges which did not exist with the intravenous therapy. Some of these drugs have interactions with food. leading to changes in their bioavailability. As they are drugs of narrow therapeutic margin. this can lead to alterations in their efficacy and/or toxicity.

A. Assessing the level of knowledge on the administration of oral cytostatics that present restrictions with meals (drugs that have to be taken with/without food) among the outpatients. B. Minimizing the incorrect administration and the risk of food-drug interactions. providing patients with information as to how and when drugs have to be administrated.

once the oral cytostatics with food restrictions were identified. we asked the patients in treatment about the information they had received from the doctor and the way they were taking the medication. We provided those who were taking the drug incorrectly with the right information. In the following visit. it was confirmed if the patients that had been previously taking the cytostatic incorrectly. were taking them in a correct way (intervention accepted/not accepted).

40% of the patients interviewed used to take the drug incorrectly. We detected a great diversity depending on the dispensed drug. 95% of the 39 interventions made were accepted. The data obtained suggest the need to reinforce the information that the patient receives. It is important to make sure that the patient understands how and when the oral cytostatic should be administered.