Cancer care

Break in cancer treatment cuts side effects and does not affect life expectancy, study finds

A trial has shown that breaks from first-line treatments for patients with metastatic and/or locally advanced kidney cancer did not cause meaningful detriment to their life expectancy or quality of life.…

Cervical cancer prevention: advice and services

With the uptake of cervical screening at 70–73% in the UK, it is important for pharmacy teams to recognise the symptoms of cervical cancer, as well as provide advice on prevention strategies.…

Implementing chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy in practice

How pharmacists can ensure the safe delivery of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy by ensuring governance, operational and clinical requirements are met.…

Going against type: the new class of cancer therapies targeting mutations rather than tissues

‘Tumour agnostic’ drugs offer a more effective and tolerable therapy for a wide range of people with cancer, so why has the NHS rejected its first one?…

The precision medicine approach to cancer therapy: part 2 — haematological malignancies

An overview of the anticancer agents that have been approved for use in the UK as part of a precision medicine approach for haematological malignancies, along with information relating to the relevant biomarkers and biomarker assays currently available. …

Step counting can help predict outcomes for patients undergoing lung cancer treatment

Measuring patients’ step counts before they receive lung cancer treatment could help predict outcomes, research published in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics has suggested.…

A handheld treatment record for patients receiving chemotherapy

Pharmacists recognise how important it is to ensure an accurate and current medication history for patients before commencing therapies or making recommendations on how to manage conditions. This is arguably even more important for people with cancer who are undergoing systemic anticancer therapy (S…

It’s time for comprehensive polypharmacy reviews for older people with cancer

The number of older people with cancer is growing and so is their risk of harmful polypharmacy — care for this expanding group of patients must improve.…

Pharmacist awarded for speaking out against approval of unproven cancer remedy

A pharmacist who successfully opposed extensive lobbying by alternative health practitioners to gain approval and reimbursement for an unproven cancer remedy has won an award from campaigning charity Sense about Science.…

Nivolumab improves survival in non-small cell lung carcinoma, study results suggest

Patients treated with nivolumab for advanced non-small cell lung carcinoma had a better survival rate at five years than those who received chemotherapy, a follow-up trial has shown.…