Guidelines for describing cancer chemotherapy regimens in all aspects of drug development, including treatment protocols, order forms, and product labels, are proposed. To complement the approaches to reducing medication errors that have been recommended by ASHP and others, pharmacists at the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute, with the input of oncology pharmacists from diverse areas of practice, developed guidelines for expressing chemotherapy dosage schedules and treatment regimens. The guidelines present standards that are broadly applicable and can be adopted by other institutions. Clear and unambiguous expression of all medication orders and consistency of treatment descriptions are suggested. Written treatment plans and orders should contain enough information to allow health care providers from diverse disciplines to compare them with published treatment descriptions and investigational protocols and must therefore include planned dosages and schedules expressed in patient-specific units. In general, drug dosages should be expressed as the amount of drug administered from a single container. When ordering drugs that are part of complex or combination-drug regimens, prescribers should write as many of the orders at one time as is possible, so that continuity might be preserved. Standard rules are proposed for describing chemotherapy regimens.

 

This article has been cited by other articles:

				P. Bonnabry, L. Cingria, M. Ackermann, F. Sadeghipour, L. Bigler, and N. Mach Use of a prospective risk analysis method to improve the safety of the cancer chemotherapy process Int. J. Qual. Health Care, February 1, 2006; 18(1): 9 - 16. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				A. M. Birner, M. K. Bedell, J. T. Avery, and M. S. Ernstoff Program to Support Safe Administration of Oral Chemotherapy J. Oncol. Pract, January 1, 2006; 2(1): 5 - 6. [Full Text] [PDF]

				H. S Sano, J A. Waddell, D. A Solimando Jr, P. Doulaveris, and R. Myhand Study of the effect of standardized chemotherapy order forms on prescribing errors and anti-emetic cost Journal of Oncology Pharmacy Practice, March 1, 2005; 11(1): 21 - 30. [Abstract] [PDF]

				C. Dinning, P. Branowicki, J. B. O'Neill, B. L. Marino, and A. Billett Chemotherapy Error Reduction: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Create Templated Order Sets Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing, January 1, 2005; 22(1): 20 - 30. [Abstract] [PDF]

				D. D. Kloth Prevention of Chemotherapy Medication Errors Journal of Pharmacy Practice, February 1, 2002; 15(1): 17 - 31. [Abstract] [PDF]

				M. J. Dooley and J. Vernon Reproducibility of treatment methodologies detailed in contemporary clinical trial reports Journal of Oncology Pharmacy Practice, June 1, 2000; 6(2): 50 - 54. [Abstract] [PDF]

				L. J Wright United States Public Health Service bicentennial 1798-1998: A focus on oncology pharmacy practice at the National Institutes of Health Journal of Oncology Pharmacy Practice, September 1, 1998; 4(3): 139 - 142. [PDF]