Ontario Health established the Oncology Pharmacy Task Force (OPTF) to develop consensus-based recommendations on best practices for take-home cancer drugs (THCDs; JCO Oncol Pract. 2020;OP2000448. doi:10.1200/OP.20.00448).
THCDs are a standard treatment of many cancers; the OPTF was developed to ensure that patients receive safe, consistent, high-quality care in the community once they leave the clinic with a prescription.
A total of 29 recommendations were developed by conducting a literature review to gather guidance from leading authorities. An extensive review process following a modified Delphi method led the consensus process.
Final results included the development of 16 recommendations, which included training and education for providers, drug access, prescribing, patients and family/caregiver education, communications, dispensing, monitoring for patient adherence and adverse effects, and incident reporting.
“Through a rigorous methodology, the OPTF derived a robust set of recommendations similar to the ASCO/Oncology Nursing Society and ASCO/National Community Oncology Dispensing Association guidelines, further validating and strengthening the applicability across multiple jurisdictions, including those with decentralized models,” concluded Aliya Pardhan, MSc, PhD, Ontario Health, Cancer Care Ontario (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) and colleagues.—Lisa Kuhns
