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PHARMACOGENETICS IS GROWING FAST

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European Statement

Clinical Pharmacy Services

Author(s)

Xando Díaz-Villamarín, Ana Pozo-Agundo, Paloma García-Navas, Celia Castaño-Amores, Alba Antunez-Rodriguez, Cristina Lucía Dávila-Fajardo

Why was it done?

Pharmacogenetics (PGx) has the potential to predict patient´s drug response. Many genetic polymorphisms have been associated with variable drug response. This has been demonstrated with the highest level of evidence in fact many of them have been included in clinical dosing guidelines such as those from the Dutch Pharmacogenomics Working Group (DPWG) and Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium (CPIC). Actually, many drug labels include the recommendation about genotyping specific single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) prior to drug prescription.

What was done?

We have implemented pharmacogenetic tests in our hospital for a total of nine drugs.

How was it done?

Our hospital provides a PGx test service according to the following workflow. Physicians order the PGx test to the Pharmacy Unit, we take a saliva sample with sterile-cotton tipped swabs and send them to the Genomic Unit at Genyo. There, we extract the DNA and genotype the variants of interest. Genetic results are reported back to the Pharmacy Unit within 48-72 hours. After genotype-phenotype-recommendation translation according to the CPIC and DPWG dosing guidelines, we upload the dosing recommendation as a PGx report to the electronic patient´s medical history.

What has been achieved?

Since 2012, 2414 patients have benefited from our PGx test service for at least one drug-gene interaction. These tests have been requested by seven hospital departments with regard to a total of nine different drugs. We have reported 932 PGx dosing recommendations: Clopidogrel with 2013 genotyped patients and 845 dosing recommendations; Azathioprine with 208 and 21; Capecitabine: 48 and 1; 5-FU: 5 patients without recommendations; Tamoxifen: 117 and 48; Trastuzumab: 34 and 15; Irinotecan: 4 and 2; Simvastatin/Atorvastatin: 2 genotyped patients and no recommendations.

What next?

Since the first PGx test in 2012, we have been able to implement PGx tests in daily clinical routine in our hospital affecting 9 drugs. 2414 patients have benefited from this service and we are working on the implementation of new polymorphisms affecting drug response to expand our services.

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