The Effect of Telephone-Based Follow-Up on Adherence, Efficacy, and Toxicity of Oral Capecitabine-Based Chemotherapy

Abstract

<b><i>Background:</i></b><i>Adherence and safety challenges aroused with the use of oral chemotherapeutic agents, such as capecitabine, necessitated implementation of a more focused follow-up for patients receiving these agents.</i><b><i>Patients and Methods:</i></b><i>This prospective, randomized open-label study explored the usefulness of weekly telephone-based follow-up in Egyptian patients with metastatic colorectal or gastric cancer treated with capecitabine-based chemotherapy regimens at the National Cancer Institute, Egypt, compared with a standard care group. Patients' adherence, safety, efficacy, and health service utilization were assessed and compared in 82 eligible patients; control group (</i>n<i> = 38) and intervention group (</i>n<i> = 44).</i><b><i>Results:</i></b><i>The intervention group showed statistically better tolerability to certain adverse effects in certain cycles with nonsignificantly higher patients' adherence and overall survival (OS), along with statistically higher passive call duration.</i><b><i>Conclusion:</i></b><i>These results suggested that pharmacist-led telephone follow-up (TFU) could help in building a close trusting rapport between the patient and caregiving pharmacist. They also demonstrated the potential usefulness of the TFU on patients' tolerability, adherence, and OS; however, further trials with a larger sample size should be encouraged to explore more pronounced results. Otherwise, the provided standard care could be considered good enough for these patients.</i>