Actual versus recommended storage temperatures of oral anticancer drugs

Background and Objective: Substantial quantities of unused drugs are returned by patients to the pharmacy each year. Re-dispensing of these drugs could reduce drug wastage and health care costs. How-ever, not much is known about storage conditions of drugs stored at home. This study investigates the proportion of patients storing oral anticancer drugs according to the product label claim. Setting and Method: Consenting adult patients from six Dutch outpatient hospital pharmacies were included if they used an oral anticancer drug (OAD) product during March 2014-January 2015. Home storage temperatures were assessed by inclusion of a temperature logger in the original OAD's packaging. Patients were asked to keep the temperature logger and package in the sealbag and to return the temperature logger(s) when the dispensed drug product had been used. Main outcome measures: The primary outcome was the proportion of patients storing oral anticancer drug products as specified in the SmPC. Results: Ninety (81.1%) of the 111 included patients [47.8% female, mean age 65.2 (SD; 11.1)] returned their temperature loggers to the pharmacy. None of the patients stored OAD products at a mean kinetic temperature above 25 °C, one patient stored an OAD requiring storage below 25 °C longer than 24 h above 25 °C. None of the patients using OADs requiring storage below 30 °C kept their medication above 30 °C for a consecutive period of 24 h or longer. Conclusion: The majority of patients using oral anticancer drug products store their drug products according to the temperature requirements on the product label claim. Based on our results, most oral anticancer drug products are likely to be suitable for redispensing.