Prescribing trends and quality of life assessment in Oral squamous cell carcinoma patients treated with palliative therapy

Introduction: Prevalence of oral squamous carcinoma (OSCC) is increasing in developing countries and represents complex pharmacotherapy with poor prognosis which results in higher rate of mortality. Therefore, it is needed to perform drug utilization pattern of palliative chemotherapeutic agents to rationalize the drug therapy in OSCC to inhibit disease.

Aim: The aim was to study of drug-utilization pattern and effectiveness of palliative chemotherapy in OSCC patients at tertiary care hospital.

Methodology: A prospective longitudinal study was conducted in the Kailash Cancer Hospital & Research Centre, Gujarat, India to study the patient characteristics, their treatment profile, recurrence profile, palliative treatment and quality of life. Data collection was done by case record form and Quality of life (QoL) questionnaire.

Result: Out of total 104 patients of OSCC attaining the palliative care treatment, 97 (9.3%) patients were male and 7 (6.7%) were female. In the present study, 83 patients had recurrent cancer  while 21 patients were newly diagnosed with Metastatic disease. In this work all 104 patients had Stage 4 malignancy. We used Methotrexate as monotherapy

while Ci in combination with methotrexate, 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) and docetaxel observed to be

38%; 42% and 49%, respectively- so this has to be changed The subjective assessment of therapy by questionnaire revealed a

statically significant (p=0.05) improvement in patient symptoms.

Conclusion: It was concluded that tailored drug    therapy approach for palliative chemotherapy with  clinically potential intervention for management of  terminal oral cancer patients with less incidence of toxicity.

Author(s): Nilay Solanki

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