Impact of telephone follow-up on hepatocellular carcinoma patients receiving oral chemotherapy from an ambulatory-care setting

Introduction In recent years, most molecular target drugs have been administered orally, as prescribed at ambulatory services in hospitals and at patients' homes. Telephone follow-up is increasingly being used in clinical practice for patients needing additional support post-discharge and for the prevention of hospital readmissions. The purpose of this study was to clarify the clinical benefits of telephone follow-up while administering oral anticancer drugs.Methods This was a single-center, observational, retrospective study. We evaluated hepatocellular carcinoma patients who received sorafenib or lenvatinib between March 2010 and February 2018. The primary endpoint was the incidence of adverse events.Results From the total of 130 patients, 83 patients received telephone follow-up and 47 did not. The incidence of hand-foot skin reactions significantly reduced in patients with telephone follow-up (odds ratio (OR) 3.69, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.16-11.8, p = 0.020). The median durations (ranges) of adherence to oral chemotherapy were 259 days (15-1730) for the telephone follow-up group and 121 days (14-1105) for the no-telephone follow-up group (p < 0.001). Moreover, the disease control rate was significantly higher in the telephone follow-up group (OR 2.52, 95% CI 1.15-5.53, p = 0.020).Conclusions Remote interventions, such as telephone follow-up, are useful means of managing adverse events in patients receiving oral anticancer drugs and can lead to improved treatment results.