The development of an objective methodology to measure medication adherence to oral thiopurines in paediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia - an exploratory study

Ahmed F. Hawwa, Jeff S. Millership, Paul S. Collier, Anthony McCarthy, Sid Dempsey, Carole Cairns, James C. McElnay

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Aims - To develop a method that prospectively assesses adherence rates in paediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) who are receiving the oral thiopurine treatment 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP).
Methods - A total of 19 paediatric patients with ALL who were receiving 6-MP therapy were enrolled in this study. A new objective tool (hierarchical cluster analysis of drug metabolite concentrations) was explored as a novel approach to assess non-adherence to oral thiopurines, in combination with other objective measures (the pattern of variability in 6-thioguanine nucleotide erythrocyte concentrations and 6-thiouric acid plasma levels) and the subjective measure of self-reported adherence questionnaire.
Results - Parents of five ALL patients (26.3%) reported at least one aspect of non-adherence, with the majority (80%) citing “carelessness at times about taking medication” as the primary reason for non-adherence followed by “forgetting to take the medication” (60%). Of these patients, three (15.8%) were considered non-adherent to medication according to the self-reported adherence questionnaire (scored ≥ 2). Four ALL patients (21.1%) had metabolite profiles indicative of non-adherence (persistently low levels of metabolites and/or metabolite levels clustered variably with time). Out of these four patients, two (50%) admitted non-adherence to therapy. Overall, when both methods were combined, five patients (26.3%) were considered non-adherent to medication, with higher age representing a risk factor for non-adherence (P < 0.05).
Conclusions - The present study explored various ways to assess adherence rates to thiopurine medication in ALL patients and highlighted the importance of combining both objective and subjective measures as a better way to assess adherence to oral thiopurines.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1105-1112
Number of pages8
JournalEuropean Journal of Clinical Pharmacology
Volume65
Issue number11
Early online date28 Jul 2009
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2009

Keywords

  • 6-mercaptopurine
  • thiopurines
  • paediatrics
  • acute lymphoblastic leukaemia
  • medication adherence

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