Haematology

Working as a pharmacist on the groundbreaking new CAR-T therapy

Clinical pharmacist Jackie Chappell shares her experiences of working with CAR-T therapy, a new cell-engineering treatment for cancer.…

Pharmacy teams may not spot sepsis under new consultation scheme, warns pharmacy negotiator

There is a “significant risk” that pharmacy teams will fail to spot sepsis in patients presenting under the new community pharmacist consultation scheme due to begin at the end of October 2019, a pharmacy negotiator has said.…

NHS England to fund ‘life-changing’ haemophilia drug

NHS England is to fund a treatment for severe haemophilia that will “dramatically” cut risk of life-treatening bleeds for thousands of patients.…

Multiple myeloma: an expensive revolution

New treatments for this rare form of cancer have transformed patient survival rates, but the benefits have come with huge costs.…

Multiple myeloma: pharmacological management

Although multiple myeloma is currently regarded as being incurable in the majority of patients, the outlook for patients diagnosed with the condition has improved markedly over the past 40 years, with survival rates quadrupling. Significant advances in both treatment and supporti…

Biosimilar anticancers get support from British oncology pharmacists

The British Oncology Pharmacy Association (BOPA), a charity of cancer specialist pharmacists, has backed the use of biosimilar monoclonal antibodies (MABs) as part of cancer treatment. In a statement, published on 5 February 2017 in an attempt to clarify where these new products fit into …

How to identify causes of a subtherapeutic INR

Pharmacists and healthcare professionals are often involved in the management of patients with subtherapeutic international normalised ratios (INRs), the cause of which is important to identify because this will affect decisions and the subsequent management of the patient.…

New oral anticoagulants for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation

Around 12,500 strokes are caused by atrial fibrillation (AF) in the UK each year, and 7,100 of these are preventable with appropriate anticoagulation. Four new oral anticoagulants (NOACs) are now available in the UK in addition to warfarin.…

Simple saline spray is as effective as drug therapy for treating chronic nosebleeds

Squirting a simple saline solution into the nostrils twice a day could alleviate chronic nosebleeds just as effectively as administering any one of three different medication sprays, a study shows.  A total of 121 people were randomly assigned to receive bevacizumab, estriol, tranexamic a…

EMA recommends cell-based therapy to reduce complications from stem cell transplants

A genetically modified cell-based therapy that can reduce the risk of complications following a stem cell transplant in patients with certain blood cancers has been recommended for conditional marketing authority by the European Medicines Agency.…