ClinicalTrials.gg
Status unknownNCT04175899POCCP1Updated Mar 8, 2021

Effectiveness of Pharmacist Intervention on Capecitabine Relative Dose Intensity, Adherence, Knowledge & Safety Among Cancer Patients in Malaysia

An interventional study of Pharmacist-led Oral Chemo Care Program (POCCP) in Solid Tumor, Adult, sponsored by Ministry of Health, Malaysia. Status unknown at 1 site in Malaysia. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2021-03-08.

Sponsored by Ministry of Health, Malaysia · Not applicable, Interventional, and Supportive care

The sponsor has not verified this record recently (last verified Mar 2021), so the status shown — last known as Active, not recruiting — may be out of date.
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
106
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Over the past decade, oral administration of chemotherapy has significantly increased and is anticipated to continue to grow. Despite the conveniences, these oral regimens can be complex and pose challenge to patient adherence. Further safety concerns are warranted due to insufficient patient education, general perception of reduced toxicity with oral treatment, improper prescribing practice, and the lack of monitoring of observable adverse effects.

Therefore, effective medication counselling and patient education is vital to empower patients and their caregivers to increase adherence and safely managed medication to achieve optimal treatment outcome.

This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of pharmacist intervention with structured oral chemotherapy education and patient monitoring on capecitabine treatment effectiveness (Relative Dose Intensity (RDI), Adherence and Persistence), safety outcomes (Adverse Event, Drug Related Problem and Health service utilization) and chemotherapy knowledge and self-efficiency among cancer patient care in Penang, a northern state oncology referral centre.

There are numerous published studies of pharmaceutical care implementations focusing mainly on in-patient setting and currently evolving in ambulatory cancer patients especially in western countries compared to Asian region. However systematic reviews show major gap still exist with paucity of scientific evidence on the effectiveness of therapeutic educational interventions for improving patient safety and adherence to oral chemotherapy mainly due to study design and method that are unable to strongly prove the outcome.

Hence highlighting the novelty and significance for this research using randomized controlled design, standardized \& validated tools for multimodal pharmacist intervention, long-term clinical outcome such as RDI with longitudinal assessment till treatment completion.

02

Conditions studied

  • Solid Tumor, Adult

Keywords

  • Capecitabine
  • Pharmacist Intervention
  • Adherence
  • Relative Dose Intensity
  • Medication Knowledge
  • Safety
03

In context

Lead sponsor

Ministry of Health, Malaysia is the lead sponsor of 27 studies on the registry; none are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

Patients will be screened according to the inclusion criteria below;

  1. Adult patients (≥ 18 years old)
  2. Ambulatory patients (daycare or out-patient oncology department clinic)
  3. (ECOG) performance status of 2 or below,
  4. Diagnosis of Colorectal, Breast, Stomach cancer
  5. Newly started on oral Capecitabine (Xeloda) either as a single agent or in combination with other intravenous chemotherapy
  6. or treatment intent
  7. Patients who have given written consent to participate in the study.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

The following patients will be excluded from the study:

  1. Patients who are ongoing in other clinical trial,
  2. Patients with dementia, cognitive disability, mental retardation, Alzheimer's or Parkinson's
  3. Patients on concurrent radiotherapy regime with capecitabine.
  4. Patients who are unable to respond to questions or could not speak and understand Malay, English or Chinese language
  5. Patients who are unable to complete the questionnaires with minimal assistance from researchers
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(3)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

ECOG performance status

A scale of how much an illness limits everyday activity. For people being assessed to join a study, scores run from 0 (fully active) to 4; lower is more active.

0
Fully active, no restrictions.
1
Limited in strenuous activity, but walking and able to do light work, such as housework or office work.
2
Walking and able to look after yourself, but unable to work; up and about more than half of waking hours.
3
Able to look after yourself only in part; in bed or a chair more than half of waking hours.
4
Unable to look after yourself at all; in bed or a chair all day.

Studies most often ask for 0–1 or 0–2. Your doctor gives the score; the WHO scale uses the same steps. The full scale also has 5, which records death.

Adjuvant and neoadjuvant

Neoadjuvant treatment is given before the main treatment (usually surgery), often to shrink a tumour. Adjuvant treatment is given after it, to lower the chance of the cancer coming back.

Metastases

Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.

05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Supportive care
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
106 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    POCCP (Pharmacist-led Oral Chemo Care Program)

    Intervention Group : Subjects undergo structured intensified pharmaceutical care program (POCCP) led by oncology experienced pharmacist (run alongside oncologist patient review at the clinic or daycare) in addition to Current Standard Best Care (SBC)

    Other: Pharmacist-led Oral Chemo Care Program (POCCP)

  • No intervention
    SBC (Current Standard Best Care)

    Control Group : Subjects undergo usual procedure which is Current Standard Best Care (SBC) for oral chemotherapy treatment which includes pre-chemotherapy review by doctor and prescribing of chemotherapy and supportive medications according to patient's chemotherapy protocol at each visit. Subsequently the patients will collect their prescribed oral medications at the ambulatory pharmacy counter according to the standard procedure of medication dispensing which includes prescription screening, medication filling, double checking, dispensing and counselling at the pharmacy counter as per usual practice of pharmaceutical care of patients.

Interventions

  • OtherPharmacist-led Oral Chemo Care Program (POCCP)

    Structured intensified pharmaceutical care program for patients ongoing oral chemotherapy treatment. Led by oncology experienced clinical pharmacist and run alongside oncologist patient review at the clinic or daycare. It utilizes structured educational material (for patients) and monitoring guideline or checklists (for pharmacists) during provision of service at each clinic visit such as patient education, pre-treatment review, medication reconciliation, prescription screening (dose, regime, supportive meds), adherence, adverse drug event monitoring and treatment recommendations on basis of agreed protocols. Pharmacist scheduled additional review within 1-week interval of start of oral chemotherapy at clinic or via phone call (according to patient's preference) will also be conducted to review patients taking their oral medications at home, assess adherence and symptom experienced to provide individualized recommendations or support to patients.

    Also known as: Pharmaceutical Care

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Relative Dose Intensity - End of Treatment

    RDI will be assessed at the end of Cycle 8 (each cycle is 21 days). Relative dose intensity (RDI), defined as the total dose administered divided by the total dose specified by the corresponding standard regimen.

    Time frame: 6 months

  2. Relative Dose Intensity - Mid Treatment

    RDI will be assessed at the end of Cycle 4 (each cycle is 21 days). Relative dose intensity (RDI), defined as the total dose administered divided by the total dose specified by the corresponding standard regimen.

    Time frame: 3 months

  3. Daily Adherence

    Daily Adherence will be assessed at the end of Cycle 8 (each cycle is 21 days). The daily adherence level determined by the pill count, patient diary record at each visit, which considered both the correct administration of capecitabine twice daily for 14 days and correct non-administration of any dose on rest days to be determined as adherent throughout the 21 day cycle.

    Time frame: 6 months

Secondary outcomes

  1. Persistence to Treatment

    Persistence to Treatment defined as percentage of patient completed 8 cycle of treatment (each cycle is 21 days).

    Time frame: 6 months

  2. Medication Adherence Report Scale (MARS-5) C1

    MARS-5 score will be assessed at the end of Cycle 1 (each cycle is 21 days). Medication Adherence Report Scale (MARS-5) Questionnaire consists of five questions on patterns of nonadherent behaviour to assess patients self-reported adherence to oral capecitabine. Scoring is on a 5-point Likert scale and total score range between 5 and 25 whereby a higher scores means better adherence.

    Time frame: 3 weeks

  3. Medication Adherence Report Scale (MARS-5) C4

    MARS-5 score will be assessed at the end of Cycle 4 (each cycle is 21 days). Medication Adherence Report Scale (MARS-5) Questionnaire consists of five questions on patterns of nonadherent behaviour to assess patients self-reported adherence to oral capecitabine. Scoring is on a 5-point Likert scale and total score range between 5 and 25 whereby a higher scores means better adherence.

    Time frame: 3 months

  4. Medication Adherence Report Scale (MARS-5) C8

    MARS-5 score will be assessed at the end of Cycle 4 (each cycle is 21 days). Medication Adherence Report Scale (MARS-5) Questionnaire consists of five questions on patterns of nonadherent behaviour to assess patients self-reported adherence to oral capecitabine. Scoring is on a 5-point Likert scale and total score range between 5 and 25 whereby a higher scores means better adherence.

    Time frame: 6 months

  5. Capecitabine Medication Taking Behavior Questionnaire C1

    Capecitabine Medication Taking Behavior (CMTB) will be assessed at the end of Cycle 1 (each cycle is 21 days). The questionnaire consists of four questions to further identify aspects of patients non-adherence, their medication-taking and medication-stopping behavior specific for oral capecitabine. Scoring is on a 5-point Likert scale and total score range between 5 and 20 whereby a higher scores means better adherence.

    Time frame: 3 weeks

  6. Capecitabine Medication Taking Behavior Questionnaire C4

    Capecitabine Medication Taking Behavior (CMTB) will be assessed at the end of Cycle 4 (each cycle is 21 days). The questionnaire consists of four questions to further identify aspects of patients non-adherence, their medication-taking and medication-stopping behavior specific for oral capecitabine. Scoring is on a 5-point Likert scale and total score range between 5 and 20 whereby a higher scores means better adherence.

    Time frame: 3 months

  7. Capecitabine Medication Taking Behavior Questionnaire C8

    Capecitabine Medication Taking Behavior (CMTB) will be assessed at the end of Cycle 8 (each cycle is 21 days). The questionnaire consists of four questions to further identify aspects of patients non-adherence, their medication-taking and medication-stopping behavior specific for oral capecitabine. Scoring is on a 5-point Likert scale and total score range between 5 and 20 whereby a higher scores means better adherence.

    Time frame: 6 months

  8. Change in Chemotherapy Knowledge & Self-Efficiency C1

    Change in Chemotherapy Knowledge \& Self-Efficiency will be assessed at the end of Cycle 1 (3 weeks) from baseline (week 0). Each cycle is 21 days Patients chemotherapy knowledge and self-efficiency level will be assessed using a structured question set.

    Time frame: 3 weeks

  9. Change in Chemotherapy Knowledge & Self-Efficiency C4

    Change in Chemotherapy Knowledge \& Self-Efficiency will be assessed at the end of Cycle 4 (3 months) from baseline (week 0). Each cycle is 21 days Patients chemotherapy knowledge and self-efficiency level will be assessed using a structured question set.

    Time frame: 3 months

  10. Change in Chemotherapy Knowledge & Self-Efficiency C8

    Change in Chemotherapy Knowledge \& Self-Efficiency will be assessed at the end of Cycle 8 (6 months) from baseline (week 0). Each cycle is 21 days Patients chemotherapy knowledge and self-efficiency level will be assessed using a structured question set.

    Time frame: 6 months

  11. Change in Adverse Drug Events (ADE) - Toxicity Score

    Change in Toxicity Score will be assessed at the end of Cycle 8 (6 months) from baseline (week 0). Each cycle is 21 days Incidence and severity grading of adverse events related to chemotherapy, will be measured by the reviewing doctor for the duration of treatment follow-up using a standardized ADE monitoring checklist based on the National Cancer Institute - Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (NCI-CTCAE) v4.0 grading scale.

    Time frame: 6 months

  12. Drug Related Problem (DRP) and Pharmacist Intervention

    Frequency of DRPs identified during the study will be reported using the Pharmaceutical Care Network Europe (PCNE) classification scheme v8.01

    Time frame: 6 month

  13. Health service utilization

    Frequency of hospital services utilizations of the patients will be measured for emergency department visit, unplanned oncology clinic or outpatient visits, hospital admissions or had phone calls to oncology clinic.

    Time frame: 6 month

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Hospital Pulau Pinang
    Pulau Pinang, 10400, Malaysia
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Mar 8, 2021, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT04175899
Lead sponsor
Ministry of Health, Malaysia
Responsible party
Tajunisah Mohamed Eusoff (Principle Investigator, Ministry of Health, Malaysia) — Principal investigator
First posted
Nov 25, 2019
Start date
Dec 10, 2019
Primary completion
Nov 2021 (estimated)
Completion
Nov 2021 (estimated)
Last update
Mar 8, 2021

Study contacts

Balamurugan Tangiisuran, PhD
study director · Universiti Sains Malaysia

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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