Cancer in children is a rare disease. In Slovenia about 50 children develop cancer every year. Pediatric population is more sensitive, because their pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics are different than in adults, so physicians and pharmacists play an important role in determining appropriate doses of medicines and in conforming therapy. Pediatric patients usually need lower doses of medicines than is the amount of a monodose-container. Because of the controllable conditions of storage, the pharmacy can store some cytostatics up to 28 days, whereas the microbiological stability on the ward is only 24 hours. The purpose of Master's degree is to analyze, whether the Department for Children Hematology and Oncology of the Pediatric Clinic Ljubljana made any savings after the introduction of centralized cytotoxic drug preparation to the pharmacy unit and due to the longer stability of drugs. Our purpose is also to evaluate the clinical importance of pharmacists' interventions made due to discrepancies prescribed on chemotherapy order forms. Between April 2013 and March 2014 the pharmacy unit saved almost 37.000 € on behalf of the introduction of centralized cytotoxic drug preparation. The highest savings were made by newer active compounds, which are still very expensive. We reviewed 656 chemotherapy order forms, 49 % of these had at least one discrepancy. Together, there were 26 % clinically unimportant discrepancies and 74 % clinically important, in 1 case of these the pharmacist prevented eventual death that could happen as the worst possible consequence. We conclude that the introduction of centralized cytotoxic drug preparation for pediatric patients to the pharmacy unit was successful, because the remainders of the medicines can be stored and used for the next patient during their stability, consequently they can save money. Furthermore, clinical evaluation showed that the pharmacist's role in reviewing the prescribed chemotherapy is important, because it can contribute to a safer medical treatment in pediatric patients.
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