Pharmacists Day - Saturday, March 19, 09:50 - 17:00 CET, Virtual Hall 3
Pharm3 Best abstract awards - Saturday, March 19, 14:00 - 15:15 CET, Panorama / Virtual Hall 3
The first ever winners of the best abstracts – pharmacists category will each give presentations on their winning studies in this session on the first day of this year’s online EBMT congress. Each winner has also recorded a short interview for EBMT TV. Click on the abstract to read it in full.
1st prize – 300 Euros - Midori Nakagaki, Senior Pharmacist, Haematology and BMT, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital and University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, and colleagues.
Please click on abstract below to read full text.
Q: Congratulations on your winning abstract Midori. Why did you decide to do this study?
A: It is not clear what weight should be used to calculate the initial dose of ciclosporin. Not many people are interested in weight-based dosing because we adjust the ciclosporin doses according to TDM. However, from my experience, only a few overdoses can cause acute kidney injury. We use total body weight for initial ciclosporin dose, and as a BMT pharmacist, I sometimes see really a high dose administered to patients with obesity. To ensure safety of this practice, we evaluated the blood levels and clinical outcomes in patients with obesity.
Q: What were the main findings?
A: Ciclosporin levels were higher in patients with obesity after total body weight based dosing. However, the incidence of acute kidney injury was not significantly higher in patients with obesity. Despite higher ciclosporin levels, acute GVHD was more common in patients with obesity.
Q: What are the implications for the findings, and will you be following up the study?
A: Using total body weight based ciclosporin dose appears to be safe but closer monitoring may be required in patients with obesity. Acute kidney injury in this population is multifactorial, and obesity appears to be an independent risk factor for acute GVHD.
Q: What other projects are you involved in at the moment?
A: I am doing my PhD on oral mucositis in BMT patients, which is using most of my time at the moment. Because acute kidney injury was not explained by ciclosporin levels in this study, we are now investigating the effects of other nephrotoxic drugs, particularly antibiotics. Apart from drug projects, I have been involved in a post-BMT nursing allied health clinic, which was presented at the EBMT 2021.
I am looking forward to attending the next EBMT meeting in person. Thanks to the EBMT Pharmacist Committee for this exciting opportunity to present at EBMT 2022.
Thanks Midori and enjoy EBMT 2022!
2nd prize – 200 Euros - Mr Adrin Dadkhah, Pharmacist based at the Stem Cell Transplantation Clinic, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany, and colleagues.
Please click on abstract below to read full text.
Q: Congratulations on your winning abstract Adrin. Why did you decide to do this study?
A: Thank you! Patients with myelofibrosis have an elevated risk of hepatotoxicity and impaired liver function due to extramedullary haematopoiesis. Since busulfan is mainly metabolised hepatically, we developed a population pharmacokinetic model of busulfan and its metabolite sulfolane in patients with myelofibrosis in order to find patient-individual factors that explain the inter-individual variability in busulfan drug-exposure in this special patient population.
Q: What were the main findings?
A: There is a significant covariate relationship between total body weight and volume of distribution of busulfan and a polymorphism of GSTA1 and the clearance of sulfolane.
Q: What are the implications for the findings?
A: Developing a population pharmacokinetic model of busulfan and its metabolite sulfolane and therefore identifying patient-individual covariates in order to explain the inter-individual variability in busulfan drug-exposure is a further step towards medication safety in patients with myelofibrosis.
Q: What other projects are you involved in at the moment?
A: Understanding the pharmacokinetics of a drug is key to medication safety. Therefore, we are focusing on developing further population pharmacokinetic models of drugs with a narrow therapeutic range.
On behalf of my research group I would like to thank the EBMT Pharmacist Committee for choosing our abstract as the second place winner.
Thanks Adrin and enjoy EBMT 2022!
3rd prize – 150 Euros – Liana Klejmont - Clinical Pharmacy Specialist, New York Medical College, New York, USA.
Please click on abstract below to read full text.
For interview with Liana and our winners above, watch EBMT TV below.