Electronic monitoring of medication adherence in early maintenance phase treatment for pediatric leukemia and lymphoma: identifying patterns of nonadherence.

OBJECTIVE To describe patterns of treatment adherence to early maintenance phase therapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and lymphoblastic lymphoma (LBL). METHODS Using an objective observational method (electronic monitoring), adherence was examined for 139 patients aged 7-19 years diagnosed with ALL or LBL across 6 centers. RESULTS The mean adherence percentage was 86.2%. Adherence rates declined over the 1-month of follow-up to 83%. 3 linear trajectories of 6-mercaptopurine adherence were identified: (1) exemplary adherence (n = 99): Averaging nearly 100%; (2) deteriorating (n = 23): Adherence decreased from 100 to 60%; and (3) chronically poor adherence (n = 9): Averaging 40%. CONCLUSIONS Adherence promotion interventions might be tailored to subgroups of patients who demonstrated problematic patterns of treatment adherence that could place them at risk for relapse. This research demonstrates the importance of using objective real-time measures of medication adherence for measuring and documenting adherence patterns.