Potential drug–drug interactions in children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia: a cohort study

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the potential drug interactions in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in the remission induction period of treatment.

Design: A prospective cohort study.

Setting: A tertiary referral centre.

Subjects: Twenty-two children undergoing treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. The median age was 4.5 years (minimum of 1 and maximum of 18 years) with male predominance (54.4%).

Main outcome measure: Presence of potential drug interactions in patients undergoing treatment for precursor cell lymphoblastic  leukaemialymphoma. The potential drug interactions term refers to the ability of a drug to affect the pharmacologic intensity
as well as the therapeutic effect of another and cause adverse reactions, as well as the possibility of clinical manifestations.

Results: All participants were exposed to at least one potential drug interaction. About 60% of interactions classified as more severe. Every new drug included in the treatment increased the chance of potential drug-drug interactions by 0.4 times.

Conclusion: These results demonstrated the patients under chemotherapeutic care for lymphoblastic leukaemia-lymphoma have high potential for drug interactions of greater severity.