Continuous-infusion and outpatient setting: A chance for patients, a challenge for hospital pharmacists.

The use of continuous-infusion in outpatient setting could be widely used in oncology and haematology care. Many times the lack of data stability about single drug or admixture of drugs, together with patient education and safety, make difficult the transition from inpatient to outpatient setting. Nowadays, this is a big challenge for hospital pharmacists, who must take into consideration the critical issues related to chemical and physical stability, besides microbiological one, in order to ensure high quality preparations and guarantee the safety and quality of care, to protect patients and their health. The aim of this article is to highlight the critical issues concerning the transition from inpatient to outpatient setting, with particular interest regarding chemotherapy protocols, which require preparation with long-term continuous-infusion.

Overall and disease-free survival in patients treated with CRS + HIPEC with cisplatin and paclitaxel for gastric cancer with peritoneal carcinomatosis.

BACKGROUND: Our experience regarding cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) was reviewed in terms of overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) in patients with synchronous peritoneal carcinomatosis (SPC) and metachronous peritoneal carcinomatosis (MPC) from gastric cancer (GC). METHODS: An analysis of prospectively collected data about patients who underwent CRS and HIPEC from July 2011 to July 2016 was carried out. Patients and tumor characteristics were taken into consideration together with pre and post-operative data. The outcomes concerned OS and DFS in both groups. RESULTS: A total of 17 cases were reported. All patients of SPC group underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy, while all patients of MPC group underwent adjuvant chemotherapy subsequently to surgery of the primary tumor. The mean follow up period was 9 months (SD±9.5). Thirteen patients (76.5%) had SPC and four (23.5%) had MPC. The mean total Peritoneal Cancer Index (PCI) was 8.5 (SD±8.4). The mean PCI was 3.75 (SD±4.9) for SPC group and 16 (SD±9.5) for MPC (P=0.003). HIPEC regimen was cisplatin plus paclitaxel for fourteen patients (82.4%) and cisplatin plus mitomycin-C (MMC) for three patients (17.6%). OS was 16 months and 6 months respectively in patients with SPC and MPC (P=0.189). DFS was 11 months and 2 months respectively in the two groups (P=0.156). Patients with SPC patients and PCI ≥12 were significantly different in terms of DFS from SPC with PCI <12 (P=0.001). Overall, twelve patients had postoperative major complications (CTCAE>2), in particular eight (61%) in SPC group while four (100%) in MPC group. Our study showed significantly better DFS for patients aged >60 years (P=0.016). CONCLUSIONS: HIPEC and CRS with cisplatin and paclitaxel in patients with PC from GC showed promising results in improving the DFS and the OS, particularly for patients with PCI <12 and for those aged >60. Although a high incidence of complications was revealed, especially in MPC group.