Department of Pharmacy

Masakazu Yamaguchi, Shinichiro Saito, Toshikatsu Kawasaki, Yasuhiko Ichida, Tomoyuki Akimoto, Reiko Matsui, Hisanaga Nomura, Daisuke Kanou, Yasuaki Ryushima, Hideki Funasaki, Naoko Yoshino, Hiroko Ouchi, Shinya Suzuki, Nobuo Mochizuki, Tomoko Morita, Mai Itagaki , Tomoka Okano, Kenji Kawasumi, Takeshi Koike, Akira Shinohara, Misaki Takeno, Ayumi Komuro, Takahiro Outa, Daisuke Hisamatsu, Takayuki Sano, Akira Tabei, Sayaka Nakajima, Kanako Mamishin, Masaki Tanaka

Introduction

The main objectives of the Department of Pharmacy are: (1) To promote clinical studies to create new evidence-based data; (2) To provide chemotherapy based on the most updated evidence-based data; and (3) To pursue patient-centered pharmaceutical care.

Our residents'training program started in 2006. In 2016, six residents joined our department. Presently, we have a total of 20 residents. In addition, our department accepted four trainees from other institutions for our oncology pharmacist training programs. Through 2016, we educated five pharmacy students and one advanced-training pharmacy student.

The Department of Pharmacy provides various important services: controlling inventory, dispensing medications, preparing i.v. solutions for chemotherapy, which include the aseptic mixing of antineoplastic agents, collecting and providing drug information, managing therapeutic drug monitoring, checking treatment regimens for each patient's chemotherapy, and providing pharmaceutical management and counseling.

Our department reviews the drugs taken by patients before and during their hospitalization. In inpatient care, our department assigns pharmacists to provide medication counseling and drug information for healthcare providers and patients, to pursue effective pharmaceutical care. In outpatient care, our department provides a pharmacy outpatient service in which pharmacists check patients for adverse reactions and doses of antineoplastic agents, especially in the case of oral anticancer medications. We then assess the necessity of supportive-care medications and suggest them to physicians. The pharmacy outpatient service also reviews the drugs taken by all patients to evaluate when patients have to stop their anticoagulants before their operation or when they have to stop to take metformin before examinations with iodinated-contrast material. Pharmacists are on duty at the Outpatient Chemotherapy Center as dedicated staff members. The pharmacists provide a Chemotherapy Hotline Service, which is a direct line for our outpatients who have any problems concerning their chemotherapy treatment. In the Outpatient Chemotherapy Center, pharmacists are always available to provide drug information for healthcare providers and patients. We also manage investigational drugs.

New developments

1)We started using an automated anti-cancer drug compounding robot from February 2016 to avoid anticancer drug exposure. The robot has the ability to take out 50mL from a 5FU vial to a syringe accurately. The robot is also able to prepare six syringes in one session. It takes 45 minutes to finish one session. The robot made a total of 2,882 syringes of 50mL 5FU this year.

2)We have begun to check patients'laboratory data on the administration day in outpatient chemotherapy. The latest laboratory data is the important information for an oncologist decision for chemotherapy administration. The new pharmacy service encourages to conduct safe chemotherapy in the National Cancer Center Hospital East, which performs more than three thousand anticancer compounding in a month.

Table 1. Pharmacy Achievement