July 26 Pharmacy Week in Review: Pharmacy Times Rides RAGBRAI; New Blood Test May Predict Breast Cancer Relaspe

This weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings, and more. Our Week in Review is a can't miss for the busy pharmacy professional.

Nicole Grassano, Host: Hello and welcome to the Pharmacy Times News Network. I’m Nicole Grassano your host for our Pharmacy Week in Review.

Pharmacy Times’ Editor in Chief Troy Trgystad is participating in the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa or RAGBRAI and will be stopping in small towns in rural Iowa along the way.

RAGBRAI began in 1973 when 2 writers for the state’s newspaper, The Des Moines Register, sought to bike across Iowa from the Missouri to the Mississippi rivers. Now the largest gathering of bike riders in the world, RAGBRAI has been host to nearly 350,000 riders over the years, passing through 780 different communities and covering more than 80% of unincorporated towns in Iowa.

Troy will be riding with the Iowa Pharmacists Association, which began sponsoring a group to ride in RAGBRAI 5 years ago to pull buggies behind rider’s bikes filled with essentials for the ride, such as Band-Aids, ibuprofen, and sunscreen.

Follow Troy’s journey through Iowa on Pharmacy Times’ social-media pages under the hashtag #PTRidesRAGBRAI!

Investigators have found that elevated blood pressure and cholesterol levels in young adulthood may contribute to an increased risk of heart disease later in life, regardless of exposure later in life to these risk factors, Contemporary Clinic reported.

The research used data from 6 large, community-based, prospective cohort studies. The analysis included more than 36,000 participants and stretched over a median of 17 years.

During the follow-up period, there were 5119 heart failure events, 4570 incidents of coronary heart disease, and 2862 stroke events.

Elevated LDL levels during young adulthood was associated with a 64% increased risk of coronary heart disease, regardless of later life exposure. High diastolic and systolic blood pressure during young adulthood were independently associated with a 21% and 37% increased risk of heart failure, respectively.

A blood test might one day predict whether a newly diagnosed patient with breast cancer will likely relapse years later, Specialty Pharmacy Times reported.

Investigators used data on 40 patients with breast cancer who were followed for a median of 4 years. Results were then validated in a separate cohort of 38 additional patients with breast cancer to create a benchmark that predicts whether these patients will relapse.

Researchers analyzed signaling responses to many anti- and pro-inflammatory cytokines in different immune cell types that are found in peripheral blood from newly diagnosed breast cancer patients and found altered signaling to 4 different cytokines in regulatory T cells in some patients. These patterns predict future relapse 3 to 5 years later, according to the study authors.

The scientists used their data to create a cytokine signaling index with the goal being that a patient could go in for a blood test and have their data run through an algorithm that will produce a number that informs doctors whether their risk of cancer recurrence is within 3 to 5 years.

Pharmacists may get more questions about Emgality, if patients have seen a recent commercial for the prescription medication.

In the spot, called “Garden Party,” the narrator says that of people with 4 to 14 migraine days per month, 60% had their migraines cut in half with Emgality versus 39% who took a placebo.

According to the commercial, Emgality is a monthly prescribed medical injection to treat those who suffer from migraines and headaches when taken regularly as prescribed.

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Thanks for watching our Pharmacy Week in Review. I’m Nicole Grassano at the Pharmacy Times News Network.