Evaluation of Patient Education System to Improve Their Understanding in Patients Treated with Erlotinib or Gefitinib

Abstract

Erlotinib and gefitinib are oral molecular target drugs for treating non-small cell lung cancer. To provide effective treatment and prevent severe toxicities, it is crucial to educate patients regarding the proper usage and adverse reactions of these drugs. Pharmacists play a key role in this respect. As there are no established patient education tools or tests for measuring patient understanding of molecular target drugs, each pharmacist evaluates the depth of patient understanding depending on their experience. In the present study, we developed various support tools such as understanding check sheet, medicine instruction sheet, leaflet of drug interaction with citrus fruits, and rash management manuals to standardize the patient education method. Each patient was tested twice with the understanding check sheet. Firstly, just after the physician/nurse explained the treatment; secondly, immediately before discharge. After the first test, we explained to the patients the questions they had answered incorrectly, with the help of the tools described above. To evaluate the usefulness of these tools, the percentage answered correctly in the understanding check sheet before and after the education was compared in 39 patients treated with erlotinib or gefitinib. The percentage answered correctly increased significantly after the education. These results suggest that the patient education system using education support tools is useful to improve patient understanding regarding erlotinib and gefitinib.