Non-compliance by patients of the recommendations related to oral antitumor therapy – causes, problems and challenges

Adherence to medical recommendations is the basis for the proper and effective course of treatment. Statistics on non-adherence differ between research and range from 40% to 80%. Compliance with the recommendations is of particular importance when the treatment is based on the necessity of taking oral medications. Both, in adult oncology and pediatric oncology/hematology, oral anticancer drugs are present in many therapeutic protocols. The essential role of appropriate adherence to the treatment recommendations is during maintenance therapy providing at home. For example, in children diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia it is period of two years. The ability to further improvement of treatment outcomes in the case of many cancers is dependent on improve adherence rates. The aim of the study was to analyze the causes and consequences of non-compliance by patients. Discussed were also available methods for the measurement of non-compliance with the recommendations and ways of improving this situation.