Improving Medication Adherence: Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Medication adherence in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is critical for achieving remission. In spite of this, adherence rates to oral chemotherapy remain suboptimal. The following review of literature synthesizes existing information concerning the importance of medication adherence with regard to ALL. The review addresses the importance of adherence in prevention of disease progression, as well as the most prominent barriers found to be associated with inadequate adherence. Such barriers have been categorized as either patient, clinician, treatment, or socioeconomic related barriers for the purpose of recognizing corresponding interventions. Several interventions that have been recommended for use in clinical settings are explored as well, based on existing intervention studies and on interviews with pediatric oncologists. The current literature review explores the most prevalent barriers identified by patients/parents as well as corresponding interventions that may be applied to such barriers. Due to the current inadequate literature pertaining specifically to adherence interventions with regard to pediatric ALL, this study aims to correlate generalized adherence barriers and interventions and extend them to the pediatric ALL population. Findings indicate that the vast majority of patients report experiencing at least one adherence barrier.