Usefulness of a Medication Instruction Sheet for Patients Receiving Cytarabine and Idarubicin Induction Therapy for Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Background/Aim: To monitor adverse events rapidly and accurately during combination chemotherapy, we established an innovative medication instruction sheet (MIS) including cytarabine and idarubicin induction therapy. However, it is unclear whether this MIS allows for the accurate prediction of adverse events and their onset timing in a clinically significant manner. We therefore evaluated the clinical usefulness of our MIS for monitoring adverse events. Patients and Methods: Patients who received cytarabine and idarubicin induction therapy for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) at the Department of Hematology, Kyushu University Hospital between January 2013 and February 2022 were included. The real-world clinical data were compared to the MIS to determine the accuracy of the MIS for predicting the onset and duration of adverse events in patients with AML during induction chemotherapy. Results: Thirty-nine patients with AML were included in this study. Overall, 294 adverse events were noted, all of which were predicted items in the MIS. Among the 192 non-hematological adverse events, 131 (68.2%) occurred during a similar period as that listed in the MIS, whereas among the 102 hematological adverse events, 98 (96.1%) appeared earlier than expected. For the non-hematological events, the onset and duration of elevated aspartate aminotransferase levels and nausea/vomiting coincided well with those listed in the MIS, whereas the predictive accuracy for rashes was the lowest. Conclusion: Hematological toxicity was not predicted because of the bone marrow failure associated with AML. Our MIS was useful for rapidly monitoring non-hematological adverse events in patients with AML receiving cytarabine and idarubicin induction therapy.