chrisralph's blog

As announced last month here , Broadfield's Buddies, as promised, sported in blue in support of CAPhO founder Larry Broadfield. The following is a sample of some of the photos captured from that day (hat tip to Philip Shaheen and Meg McCallum for the pics). Well done and all the best to Larry!

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Guest post by Tom McFarlane

Until relatively recently, metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) was a disease with very few treatment options available. Patient options were limited to bisphosphonate use for bony metastases and, eventually, chemotherapy of somewhat questionable efficacy with docetaxel and/or mitoxantrone. Since 2010, there have been several promising agents which have emerged in both the pre-chemo and post-chemo settings in mCRPC which have demonstrated progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS)...Read more

by Amy Smith, as part of her Green Oncology series

Recently, I had the unique opportunity to collaborate with Dr. David Blackburn, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan, on a research project with a focus in patient adherence. We reviewed de-identified patient data from the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency (SCA) to assess compliance rates to an orally administered chemotherapy agent: abiraterone .

A shift is occurring in chemotherapy administration from...Read more

Guest post by Sarah Lutes, Pharmacy Resident, AHS Cancer Control

Currently, the standard practice at Alberta Health Services for newly diagnosed grade 3 and 4 glioma is surgery plus radiation. Patients with 1p/19q-codeleted tumors are also given six cycles of procarbazine, lomustine and vincristine (PCV). There is currently no accepted standard practice for recurrent glioblastoma mulitforme (GBM), however the RESCUE protocol (temazolamide 50mg/m2 given daily) or Avastin® (bevacizumab) are used most often. Other options include...Read more

Guest post by:

Mark Pasetka B.Sc., B.Sc.Pharm., Pharm.D.

Clinical Pharmacy Coordinator

Odette Cancer Centre – Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

CAPhO President-Elect

Author's Note: "This was a radiation therapy focused article – i.e., that was limited to 1000 words and therefore, short. I focused on the 5-FU induced cardiotoxicity mostly and provided a very basic overview, not on anthracycline induced cardiotoxicity as is much more commonly reported."

Chemotherapy used for the treatment of cancer carry several significant...Read more