Potential drug interactions in elderly cancer patients

Introduction: Drug interaction constitutes a major challenge in elderly cancer patients. This study investigated the number and types of medications patients and potential drug interactions in these patients. Methods: Treatments received by 105 cancer outpatients aged >= 70 years were analyzed using the French Thesaurus to identify drug drug interactions according to four levels: contraindication, concomitant use not recommended, concomitant medications requiring precautions and concomitant medications to be taken into account. Results: The mean number of medications per patient was 4.7 (range: 0-14). Among 97 patients taking 12 drugs, 45 potential interactions were identified, occurring in 32 patients. No contraindication, 2 cases of concomitant use not recommended, 9 cases requiring precautions (20%) and 34 cases of concomitant medications to be taken into account were identified. Drug interactions caused respiratory distress and increased bleeding risk. Conclusion: Drug interactions are common in the elderly, but almost half of interactions were moderate. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.