Accuracy of Adverse Event Ascertainment in Clinical Trials for Pediatric Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

2016

2016 Feb 16

1527-7755

<p><strong>PURPOSE: </strong>Reporting of adverse events (AEs) in clinical trials is critical to understanding treatment safety, but data on AE accuracy are limited. This study sought to determine the accuracy of AE reporting for pediatric acute myeloid leukemia clinical trials and to test whether an external electronic data source can improve reporting.</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>Reported AEs were evaluated on two trials, Children's Oncology Group AAML03P1 and AAML0531 arm B, with identical chemotherapy regimens but with different toxicity reporting requirements. Chart review for 12 AEs for patients enrolled in AAML0531 at 14 hospitals was the gold standard. The sensitivity and positive predictive values (PPV) of the AAML0531 AE report and AEs detected by review of Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS) billing and microbiology data were compared with chart data.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>Select AE rates from AAML03P1 and AAML0531 arm B differed significantly and correlated with the targeted toxicities of each trial. Chart abstraction was performed on 204 patients (758 courses) on AAML0531. AE report sensitivity was &lt; 50% for eight AEs, but PPV was &gt; 75% for six AEs. AE reports for viridans group streptococcal bacteremia, a targeted toxicity on AAML0531, had a sensitivity of 78.3% and PPV of 98.1%. PHIS billing data had higher sensitivity (&gt; 50% for nine AEs), but lower PPV (&lt; 75% for 10 AEs). Viridans group streptococcal detection using PHIS microbiology data had high sensitivity (92.3%) and PPV (97.3%).</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSION: </strong>The current system of AE reporting for cooperative oncology group clinical trials in pediatric acute myeloid leukemia underestimates AE rates. The high sensitivity and PPV of PHIS microbiology data suggest that using external data sources may improve the accuracy of AE reporting.</p>

10.1200/JCO.2015.65.5860

J. Clin. Oncol.

26884558

Trends in Clostridium difficile infection and risk factors for hospital acquisition of Clostridium difficile among children with cancer.

2013

699-705.e1

2013 Sep

1097-6833

<p><strong>OBJECTIVES: </strong>To study the trend of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) and risk factors for hospital acquired CDI (HA-CDI) among children with cancer.</p>

<p><strong>STUDY DESIGN: </strong>We analyzed 33 095 first pediatric hospitalizations for malignancy among 43 pediatric hospitals between 1999 and 2011. The effect of demographics, disease characteristics, and weekly drug exposure (antibiotics, antacids, and chemotherapy) on HA-CDI was assessed with multivariate Cox regression. CDI was defined by the combination of International Classification of Diseases, 9th edition-Clinical Modification (ICD-9CM), CDI diagnostic assay billing code, and concurrent administration of a CDI-active antibiotic. HA-CDI was defined as CDI with assay occurring after the sixth hospital day.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>A total of 1736 admissions with CDI were identified, of which 380 were HA-CDI. CDI incidence increased from 1999-2006 (P = .01); however, CDI testing frequency and disease decreased from 2006-2010 (P &lt; .05). Admissions with HA-CDI had longer lengths of stay compared with those without HA-CDI (35 days vs 12 days, P &lt; .01) and greater risk of inpatient mortality (relative risk 2.3, P &lt; .01). Increased risk of HA-CDI (hazard ratio [95% CI]) was seen after exposure to the following drugs: aminoglycoside (1.357 [1.053-1.749]), third generation cephalosporin (1.518 [1.177-1.959]), cefepime (2.383 [1.839-3.089]), and proton pump inhibiting agent (1.398 [1.096-1.784]) in the prior week, and chemotherapy (1.942 [1.491-2.529]) in the 8-14 days prior to HA-CDI onset. Histamine-2 receptor antagonist exposure in the prior week was associated with decreased risk of HA-CDI (0.730 [0.584-0.912]).</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>Despite an apparent decrease in CDI incidence from 2006-2010, HA-CDI remains prevalent and morbid among children with cancer. Recent exposure to chemotherapy, proton pump inhibitor, and certain antibiotics were independent risk factors for HA-CDI.</p>

10.1016/j.jpeds.2013.01.062

J. Pediatr.

23477996

Comparison of administrative/billing data to expected protocol-mandated chemotherapy exposure in children with acute myeloid leukemia: A report from the Children's Oncology Group.

2015

1184-9

07/2015

1545-5017

<p><strong>BACKGROUND: </strong>Recently investigators have used analysis of administrative/billing datasets to answer clinical and pharmacoepidemiology questions in pediatric oncology. However, the accuracy of pharmacy data from administrative/billing datasets have not yet been evaluated. The primary objective of this study was to determine the concordance of Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS) administrative/billing chemotherapy data with Children's Oncology Group (COG) protocol-mandated chemotherapy and to assess the implications of this level of concordance for further PHIS research.</p>

<p><strong>PROCEDURE: </strong>Data from 384 pediatric patients (1,060 courses of chemotherapy) with acute myeloid leukemia treated on COG clinical trial AAML0531 were previously merged with PHIS data. PHIS chemotherapy administrative/billing data were reviewed for the first three courses of chemotherapy. Accuracy was assessed using three metrics: recognizability of chemotherapy pattern by course, chemotherapy administration pattern by individual medication, and concordance with the number of days of protocol-defined chemotherapy.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>The chemotherapy pattern was recognizable in 87.3% of courses when course-wide accuracy was assessed. Chemotherapy administration pattern varied by medication. Cytarabine had perfect concordance 70.9% of the time, daunorubicin had perfect concordance 77.4% of the time, and etoposide had perfect concordance 67.8% of the time.</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>The accuracy of chemotherapy administrative/billing data supports the continued use of PHIS data for epidemiology studies as long as investigators perform data quality control checks and evaluate each specific medication prior to undertaking definitive analyses.</p>

10.1002/pbc.25475

Pediatr Blood Cancer

25760019