Oral targeted therapies: managing drug interactions, enhancing adherence and optimizing medication safety in lymphoma patients

The advent of newer, targeted oral chemotherapy medications such as small molecule kinase inhibitors, ibrutinib and idelalisib, has created additional options for the treatment of lymphoma. The targeted nature of these agents offers many patient-identified advantages over older, intravenously administered chemotherapy regimens such as ease of self-administration and an increased sense of independence. However, newer oral agents also present unique challenges not previously experienced with older therapies that may affect safety, efficacy and patient adherence. In this article, we review oral agents for the treatment of lymphoma, how to evaluate and manage drug-drug and drug-food interactions with concomitant oral medications, and issues with patient adherence as well as methods to determine adherence for oral chemotherapy.