Potential drug-drug interactions in children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia: a cohort study

Objective To evaluate the potential drug interactions in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in the remission induction period of treatment. Design A prospective cohort study. Setting A tertiary referral centre. Subjects Twenty-two children undergoing treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. The median age was 4.5 years (minimum of 1 and maximum of 18 years) with male predominance (54.4%). Main outcome measure Presence of potential drug interactions in patients undergoing treatment for precursor cell lymphoblastic leukaemia-lymphoma. The potential drug interactions term refers to the ability of a drug to affect the pharmacologic intensity as well as the therapeutic effect of another and cause adverse reactions, as well as the possibility of clinical manifestations. Results All participants were exposed to at least one potential drug interaction. About 60% of interactions classified as more severe. Every new drug included in the treatment increased the chance of potential drug-drug interactions by 0.4 times. Conclusion These results demonstrated the patients under chemotherapeutic care for lymphoblastic leukaemia-lymphoma have high potential for drug interactions of greater severity.