Improving Pharmacist-Led Pediatric Patient Education on Oral Chemotherapy at Home

Oral chemotherapy (OC) has been increasingly used in pediatric patients diagnosed with cancer, which is primarily managed in the outpatient setting. Different from adults, pediatric patients face unique challenges in administering these hazardous medications at home. Because of the complexity of pediatric pharmaceutical care and the hazardous nature of chemotherapy agents, comprehensive patient education is imperative to mitigate the potential safety risks associated with OC administration at home. Pharmacists play a vital role in patient education and medication consultations. However, the lack of practice guidelines and limited resources supporting OC counseling are noted. Additional barriers include insufficient knowledge and training on OC, which can be improved by continuing education. In a regional children’s hospital, a comprehensive OC education checklist was developed for pediatric patients and their caregivers to standardize consultations led by pharmacists. An infographic OC handout was also formulated to improve patient knowledge and awareness. Moreover, innovative approaches such as using telepharmacy, smartphone applications, and artificial intelligence have been increasingly integrated into patient care, which can help optimize OC consultations for children and adolescents. Further studies are warranted to enhance oral chemotherapy education specifically tailored for pediatric patients in outpatient settings

The Aspergillus nidulans bimC4 mutation provides an excellent tool for identification of kinesin-14 inhibitors

Centrosome amplification is a hallmark of many types of cancer cells, and clustering of multiple centrosomes is critical for cancer cell survival and proliferation. Human kinesin-14 HSET/KFIC1 is essential for centrosome clustering, and its inhibition leads to the specific killing of cancer cells with extra centrosomes. Since kinesin-14 motor domains are conserved evolutionarily, we conceived a strategy of obtaining kinesin-14 inhibitors using Aspergillus nidulans, based on the previous result that loss of the kinesin-14 KlpA rescues the non-viability of the bimC4 kinesin-5 mutant at 42°C. However, it was unclear whether alteration of BimC or any other non-KlpA protein would be a major factor reversing the lethality of the bimC4 mutant. Here we performed a genome-wide screen for bimC4 suppressors and obtained fifteen suppressor strains. None of the suppressor mutations maps to bimC. The vast majority of them contain mutations in the klpA gene, most of which are missense mutations affecting the C-terminal motor domain. Our study confirms that the bimC4 mutant is suitable for a cell-based screen for chemical inhibitors of kinesin-14. Since the selection is based on enhanced growth rather than diminished growth, cytotoxic compounds can be excluded