[Pharmacist involvement in supporting care in patients receiving oral anticancer therapies: A situation report in French cancer centers].

INTRODUCTION

The increasing prescription of oral anticancer therapies has significantly changed inpatient care to outpatient care. This transformation requires an excellent coordination between different professionals to ensure healthcare channel security.

METHOD

We performed a prospective study in 18 French cancer centers from March to April 2016. The aim of this study was to identify resources deployed to support patients receiving oral anticancer therapies and to assess pharmacist's involvement.

RESULTS

More than half of the centers have developed patient education program and/or practice pharmaceutical consultations. In total, 54.5% have deployed an oral anticancer drugs program and the pharmacist is involved in multidisciplinary teams. In total, 44.4% of the centers have developed hospital-to-community coordination actions but all of them highlight the time-consuming character of those programs.

DISCUSSION

Administrative burdens are seriously hindering patient education program's development. Multidisciplinary consultations can offer an attractive alternative because of easy implementation modalities. Finally, hospital-to-community coordination actions seem hard to implement and require harmonization of communication practices, and need more technical and financial means.