Medication-Documented Systemic Anticancer Treatment in Colorectal Cancer: A Single-Centre Routine-Data Study
- 1Doctoral School, University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova, 200349 Craiova, Romania
- 2Faculty of Medicine, University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova, 200349 Craiova, Romania
- 3Research Centre for Gastroenterology and Hepatology,200349, Craiova, Romania
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Real-world colorectal cancer (CRC) treatment is documented across multiple routine hospital data domains, which complicates interpretation of treatment-pattern studies. We characterised medication-documented systemic anticancer treatment patterns in CRC and evaluated the consistency of the routine data sources used to ascertain them. Methods: This retrospective observational study included 1310 encounters from 627 patients with C18—C20 diagnosis codes from 1 March to 30 April 2026. Semicolon-delimited medication entries were normalised to named agents. Patient-level medication-derived treatment patterns were characterised among 54 patients with at least one named antineoplastic documented during the fixed study window, without assuming representativeness of the full CRC-coded cohort; oral prescriptions were analysed separately as complementary evidence. Results: Twenty patients (37.0%) had cytotoxic component(s) only, 20 (37.0%) targeted/immune-checkpoint-inhibitor (ICI) plus cytotoxic components, 12 (22.2%) targeted/ICI components without cytotoxic co-documentation, and 2 (3.7%) other antineoplastic agents only. At the first treatment-documented encounter, 24/54 (44.4%) had at least two named antineoplastic agents co-documented. Thirty-three patients (61.1%) had medication-positive treatment documentation in at least two encounters, and 30/33 (90.9%) had the same documented class set across these encounters. Procedure- and medication-based indicators agreed in 890/891 interpretable encounters (99.89%; Cohen’s kappa 0.9953, 95% CI 0.9839–1.0000). Conclusions: Routine hospital medication data showed heterogeneous medication patterns among CRC-coded patients, frequently with multi-component and repeated documentation. Procedure and medication indicators share a hospital workflow; their near-complete concordance describes internal consistency and cannot exclude joint under-capture or establish clinical accuracy or treatment appropriateness.
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BibTeX
@article{vieru2026medicationdocumented,
title = {{Medication-Documented Systemic Anticancer Treatment in Colorectal Cancer: A Single-Centre Routine-Data Study}},
author = {Alexandru-Marian Vieru and Radu Meșină and Virginia-Maria Rădulescu and Emil-Tiberius Trașcă and Sergiu-Marian Cazacu and Maria-Lorena Mustață and Daniela-Maria Micu and Tudor-Adrian Bălșeanu and Petrică Popa and Tudorel Ciurea},
journal = {Journal of Clinical Medicine},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3390/jcm15218486},
url = {https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/15/21/8486},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Medication-Documented Systemic Anticancer Treatment in Colorectal Cancer: A Single-Centre Routine-Data Study
AU - Alexandru-Marian Vieru
AU - Radu Meșină
AU - Virginia-Maria Rădulescu
AU - Emil-Tiberius Trașcă
AU - Sergiu-Marian Cazacu
AU - Maria-Lorena Mustață
AU - Daniela-Maria Micu
AU - Tudor-Adrian Bălșeanu
AU - Petrică Popa
AU - Tudorel Ciurea
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/31
JO - Journal of Clinical Medicine
DO - 10.3390/jcm15218486
UR - https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/15/21/8486
AB - Background/Objectives: Real-world colorectal cancer (CRC) treatment is documented across multiple routine hospital data domains, which complicates interpretation of treatment-pattern studies. We characterised medication-documented systemic anticancer treatment patterns in CRC and evaluated the consistency of the routine data sources used to ascertain them. Methods: This retrospective observational study included 1310 encounters from 627 patients with C18—C20 diagnosis codes from 1 March to 30 April 2026. Semicolon-delimited medication entries were normalised to named agents. Patient-level medication-derived treatment patterns were characterised among 54 patients with at least one named antineoplastic documented during the fixed study window, without assuming representativeness of the full CRC-coded cohort; oral prescriptions were analysed separately as complementary evidence. Results: Twenty patients (37.0%) had cytotoxic component(s) only, 20 (37.0%) targeted/immune-checkpoint-inhibitor (ICI) plus cytotoxic components, 12 (22.2%) targeted/ICI components without cytotoxic co-documentation, and 2 (3.7%) other antineoplastic agents only. At the first treatment-documented encounter, 24/54 (44.4%) had at least two named antineoplastic agents co-documented. Thirty-three patients (61.1%) had medication-positive treatment documentation in at least two encounters, and 30/33 (90.9%) had the same documented class set across these encounters. Procedure- and medication-based indicators agreed in 890/891 interpretable encounters (99.89%; Cohen’s kappa 0.9953, 95% CI 0.9839–1.0000). Conclusions: Routine hospital medication data showed heterogeneous medication patterns among CRC-coded patients, frequently with multi-component and repeated documentation. Procedure and medication indicators share a hospital workflow; their near-complete concordance describes internal consistency and cannot exclude joint under-capture or establish clinical accuracy or treatment appropriateness.
SN - 2077-0383
ER -