Trends in quality of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma care: is it getting better?

Rituximab for subcutaneous delivery: Clinical management principles from a nursing perspective

Nurses play an integral role in administering treatments to patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. Intravenous (IV) rituximab was approved by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration in 1998, and a novel subcutaneous (SC) formulation was approved in 2014. Fixed-dose SC rituximab is highly concentrated; co-formulation with a fully human recombinant vorhyaluronidase alfa enzyme helps overcome the physiological barriers of the SC space, facilitating drug dispersion. Despite a different pharmacokinetic profile to the IV preparation, SC rituximab demonstrates a comparable efficacy/safety profile. Most frequently occurring rituximab-related adverse events include neutropenia, nausea and constipation, and administration-related reactions are more frequent with the SC preparation. Compared with IV, SC delivery reduces treatment times and nurse workload, and patients report greater comfort and convenience. This article sets out nursing considerations for optimal administration of SC rituximab, including premedication, drug handling/preparation, injection technique, after-care and management of adverse events, particularly administration-related reactions.

Variation in guideline adherence in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma care: impact of patient and hospital characteristics

BACKGROUND

The objective of this observational study was to assess the influence of patient, tumor, professional and hospital related characteristics on hospital variation concerning guideline adherence in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) care.

METHODS

Validated, guideline-based quality indicators (QIs) were used as a tool to assess guideline adherence for NHL care. Multilevel logistic regression analyses were used to calculate variation between hospitals and to identify characteristics explaining this variation. Data for the QIs regarding diagnostics, therapy, follow-up and organization of care, together with patient, tumor and professional related characteristics were retrospectively collected from medical records; hospital characteristics were derived from questionnaires and publically available data.

RESULTS

Data of 423 patients diagnosed with NHL between October 2010 and December 2011 were analyzed. Guideline adherence, as measured with the QIs, varied considerably between the 19 hospitals: >20 % variation was identified in all 20 QIs and high variation between the hospitals (>50 %) was seen in 12 QIs, most frequently in the treatment and follow-up domain. Hospital variation in NHL care was associated more than once with the characteristics age, extranodal involvement, multidisciplinary consultation, tumor type, tumor aggressiveness, LDH level, therapy used, hospital region and availability of a PET-scanner.

CONCLUSION

Fifteen characteristics identified at the patient level and at the hospital level could partly explain hospital variation in guideline adherence for NHL care. Particularly age was an important determinant: elderly were less likely to receive care as measured in the QIs. The identification of determinants can be used to improve the quality of NHL care, for example, for standardizing multidisciplinary consultations in daily practice.