Hospital

Cholangiocarcinoma is a rare bile duct cancer, with physicians diagnosing approximately 8000 cases each year.

Although not all children are eligible for vaccination, recommendations for schools include masking, testing, and quarantine policies, as well as vaccinations for anyone eligible.

Rivaroxaban is the first and only therapy indicated for both coronary artery disease and peripheral artery disease.

Directions in Oncology Pharmacy is getting to know oncology pharmacy professionals through a series of interviews. In this issue, we talk to Ashley E. Glode, PharmD, BCOP, who was recently named an Advocacy Champion by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

Hospitalizations related to C. diff infections can cost more than twice as much as the average hospitalization and can extend patients’ stays by an average of 3.6 days.

This research lays the foundation for future clinical trials aimed at investigating whether moderate to vigorous exercise can minimize “chemo brain,” which is a decline in cognitive function many patients with breast cancer experience.

Rylaze was granted Fast Track Designation by the FDA in October 2019 for acute lymphoblastic leukemia and was approved as part of the Real-Time Oncology Review program.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD)-associated pruritus is a systemic itch condition occurring with a high frequency and intensity in patients with CKD undergoing dialysis.

It is the responsibility of the pharmacist to remain informed of all existing and new drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer disease, especially because novel and investigational drugs may target the pathophysiology of the disease.

The first fully approved vaccine for COVID-19 will be marketed under the name Comirnaty.

Prescription labels have a lot of details on them, which can make it difficult for patients to find and use important information.

Median disease-free survival was nearly twice as long among patients with urothelial carcinoma who received nivolumab compared with placebo.

Kristin Ferguson, DNP, RN, OCN, outlined 4 principles for the reimbursement of oncology drugs, diagnostics, and biomarker testing that were recently released by the Association of Community Cancer Centers.

STRO-002 is a folate receptor alpha-targeting antibody drug conjugate for the treatment of patients with platinum-resistant epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer who have received 1 to 3 prior lines of systemic therapy.

The agents that have been evaluated and approved, and those that are coming in the pipeline, make for an exciting time to consider directed therapies.

This week’s recommendation by the Biden administration for booster shots to combat COVID-19 is a call to action for pharmacists to get ready for the upcoming flurry of activity.

The study results indicated a nearly 9-fold increase in likelihood of survival without ventilation (SWOV) among this population, compared to a 2.5-fold increased likelihood of SWOV in the overall population.

The pharmaceutical market is massive, clocking in at more than $1.2 trillion in 2020, with an anticipated growth of nearly $22 billion dollars expected in 2021. Examining which drug makes up the most of that revenue, one name pulls far away from the competition.

The lower the glomerular filtration rate, the lower the stage, the worse kidney disease is.

The investigators analyzed a panel of antibodies generated in response to the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine and found that delta was unable to evade all but 1 of the antibodies tested.

In clinical trials, empagliflozin significantly reduced the relative risk of the primary composite endpoint of time to cardiovascular death or hospitalization for heart failure by 25%.

Specialty pharmacists’ roles have grown in new and exciting ways in recent years, and those changes have directly impacted health outcomes for all specialty patients, including patients with HIV.

Widespread COVID-19 booster shot administration is pending FDA approval and recommendation by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

The continued approval for this indication may be subject upon verification and description of clinical benefit in a confirmatory trial.

Approved by the FDA on June 29, 2020, the pertuzumab, trastuzumab, and hyaluronidase-zzxf combination therapy with chemotherapy offers several advantages to the standard treatment of pertuzumab plus trastuzumab with chemotherapy for breast cancers with HER2 overexpression.

These findings could lead to improved therapies and prolonged survival for patients with metastatic TNBC, according to the study authors.

English discussed the challenges and highlights of her time in the trial, in addition to what she feels health care professionals should learn from her own treatment experience.

Dennis Wright, senior director of product marketing for Central Pharmacy Compounding and Dispensing at Omnicell, discusses methods of addressing the rising rate of hospital pharmacist burnout through automation and technology-enabled services.

What many preceptors may not realize is that in addition to learning about practice settings, all graduates of pharmacy schools in the United States must also be able to demonstrate leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

Amesh Adalja, MD, FIDSA, FACP, FACEP, said that the efficacy of COVID-19 booster vaccines against variants of concern is still relatively unknown, although administering the third shots does increase antibodies as expected.