Avaliação da farmacovigilância na quimioterapia antineoplásica com o protocolo FEC (5-fluorouracil, epirrubicina e ciclofosfamida) em pacientes com câncer de mama

Abstract

Pharmacovigilance is the science concerning the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse reactions or any other possible drug-related problems. In Brazil, pharmacovigilance is in the developmental stage. The culture of spontaneous reporting not yet fully spread, especially in oncology, where the occurrence of adverse reaction is often unnoticed because it is considered as an expected event, and therefore immaterial. This study evaluated the pharmacovigilance actions carried out at a hospital in the city of Teresina, PI, through the monitoring of patients with breast cancer undergoing anticancer therapy with the FEC protocol. An investigation was undertaken based on a review of the medical records of these patients to detect the registry: of adverse reactions resulting from cancer chemotherapy and the distinction of them according to the degrees of severity established by the National Cancer Institute (NCI); of clinical interventions due to ADR that occurred during therapy and possible changes in the plan of treatment protocol (delays in the achievement of cycles of chemotherapy or temporary suspension of therapy, reductions in the recommended doses) related with adverse reactions. Of all the adverse reactions observed during the investigation, 2,07% were not registered in accordance with the terminology adopted by NCI qualitative and 15,06% were not graded as to severity. In addition, 100% of ADRs were not reported to the recognized health authority (ANVISA) and there is not an institutional database with these adverse reactions. There were also 17 identified (70,83%) clinical interventions due to ADR performed on an outpatient basid and 7 (29,17%) clinical interventions due to ADR that required hospitalization of the patient; delays or temporary suspension of achievement of cycles of chemotherapy with 8,70% due to clinical causes among these adverse reactions; and 8 (5,84%) cases of dose reduction due to the presence and severity of adverse reactions. It is concluded that the pharmacovigilance actions of the hospital are still preliminary, with organizational flaws that reduce the reliability of the information recorded. In addition, there was evidence of the importance of pharmacovigilance in oncology, where the toxicity of drugs used may be considered a limiting factor necessary for an ideal therapeutic practice.