Pharmacy

Non-O blood type linked to higher VTE risk in cancer patients

VTE in cancer patients: Does blood type matter?

Pearl Toh, 3 hours ago

Non-O blood type appears to be a risk factor for cancer-associated venous thromboembolism (VTE), particularly in patients who have cancer types with low to intermediate thrombotic risk, according to data from the Cancer and Thrombosis Study (CATS) presented at ASH 2021.

$Tocilizumab effective in refractory joint, skin involvement in systemic sclerosis$

Tocilizumab effective in refractory joint, skin involvement in systemic sclerosis

5 hours ago

Interleukin-6 inhibition by tocilizumab (TCZ) leads to improvements in refractory joint and skin involvement regardless of systemic sclerosis (SSc) disease duration or subtype, reports a study.

Can atorvastatin save COVID-19 patients in intensive care?

Stephen Padilla, 6 hours ago

Use of atorvastatin in adults with COVID-19 admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) is safe but does not result in a marked decrease in the composite of venous or arterial thrombosis, treatment with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or all-cause mortality, a study has shown.

Sunshine vitamin, calcium may help avert bone loss associated with AIs

Elvira Manzano, 18 hours ago

Supplementation with vitamin D, otherwise called sunshine vitamin, and calcium may help women with breast cancer protect against bone loss associated with aromatase inhibitors (AIs), suggests a 5-year follow-up study from Brazil.

Depression, antiseizure medication side effects take toll on epileptic patients’ quality of life

Jairia Dela Cruz, Yesterday

Among patients with epilepsy, quality of life (QOL) declines with antiseizure medication (ASM) polytherapy, and this effect is mediated by depression and the side effects of ASMs, as reported in a study.

What factors predispose patients to hyperuricaemia following favipiravir treatment?

2 days ago

An already elevated serum uric acid level at baseline and achievement of high steady-state serum favipiravir concentrations during therapy contribute to an increased risk of developing treatment-induced hyperuricaemia, according to a study.

NOACs in nonvalvular atrial fibrillation with multimorbidity: Where does apixaban stand?

02 Nov 2021

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia encountered in clinical practice, affecting millions of people globally. Stroke is one of its devastating complications, with the risk steeply increasing with advancing age. Additionally, AF is associated with more than a tripling of the risk of systemic embolic (SE) events. [J Am Heart Assoc 2020;9:e016724]

Rapid antigen test: Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good

Pearl Toh, 23 Oct 2021

While rapid antigen test is less sensitive than conventional nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) such as RT-PCR* in detecting SARS-CoV-2 virus, “a test does not have to be perfect to be clinically useful,” said Professor Angela Caliendo during a session in IDWeek 2021 — echoing the maxim that perfect should not be the enemy of good in the pandemic era.

ID NOW rapid molecular assay an effective COVID-19 test for kids

Rapid COVID-19 testing: Is it as good in kids?

Roshini Claire Anthony, 20 Oct 2021

A large retrospective study from the US, presented at IDWeek 2021, has shown that the Abbott ID NOW rapid molecular COVID-19 assay is highly sensitive and specific at detecting SARS-CoV-2 infection in a paediatric population.

Sunshine vitamin, calcium may help avert bone loss associated with AIs

Elvira Manzano, 18 Jan 2022

Long-term givosiran use shows sustained clinical benefit in patients with AHP

Elaine Soliven, 15 Jan 2022

Long-term treatment with givosiran showed continued reduction in the composite annualized attack rate (AAR) of porphyria among patients with acute hepatic porphyria (AHP), according to the ENVISION* open-label extension (OLE) study presented at ASH 2021.

Pola-R-CHP triumphs over R-CHOP in improving PFS in DLBCL

Roshini Claire Anthony, 14 Jan 2022

The combination of polatuzumab vedotin with rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and prednisone (pola-R-CHP) demonstrated a significant improvement in progression-free survival (PFS) over the standard-of-care (SoC) regimen of rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP) in patients with previously untreated diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), according to results of the phase III POLARIX study.

One-time beti-cel gene therapy potentially curative for TDT

Elvira Manzano, 13 Jan 2022

One-time gene therapy in patients with transfusion-dependent β-thalassemia (TDT) results in near-normal or normal haemoglobin levels and transfusion independence, suggesting its curative potential, a long follow-up study has shown.

Fulvestrant-palbociclib combo pre-progression improves PFS in ESR1+ mBC

Roshini Claire Anthony, 12 Jan 2022

Switching to a fulvestrant-palbociclib regimen prior to disease progression after detection of elevated ESR1 mutations in the blood of patients with hormone receptor-positive (HR+), HER2-negative (HER2-) metastatic breast cancer (mBC) who were receiving aromatase inhibitors (AIs) plus palbociclib extended their progression-free survival (PFS), results of the phase III PADA-1 trial showed.

IVO-AZA combo therapy boosts OS in IDH1-mutated AML

Elvira Manzano, 11 Jan 2022

The combination of ivosidenib and azacitidine (IVO-AZA) improves event-free and overall survival (OS) vs AZA alone in patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) bearing somatic mutations in isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1), the AGILE trial has shown.

Pyrotinib + capecitabine extends OS in metastatic breast cancer

Roshini Claire Anthony, 10 Jan 2022

Patients with previously treated HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer (mBC) experienced a 31 percent reduced risk of death when treated with pyrotinib plus capecitabine than lapatinib plus capecitabine, according to updated results of the phase III PHOEBE trial from China.