Introduction: DNA-informed prescribing (termed pharmacogenomics, PGx) is the epitome of personalised medicine. Despite international guidelines existing, its implementation in paediatric oncology remains sparse.
Methods And Analysis: Minimising Adverse Drug Reactions and Verifying Economic Legitimacy-Pharmacogenomics Implementation in Children is a national prospective, multicentre, randomised controlled trial assessing the impact of pre-emptive PGx testing for actionable PGx variants on adverse drug reaction (ADR) incidence in patients with a new cancer diagnosis or proceeding to haematopoetic stem cell transplant.
Proton Beam Therapy (PBT) has the potential to improve paediatric cancer care by reducing radiation exposure and thus long-term toxicities. Ethical concerns and debates surrounding the treatment, such as eligibility and accessibility, are ongoing in Australia. The Australian Bragg Centre for Proton Therapy and Research (ABCPTR) (named after Sir William Henry Bragg who described the Bragg peak in his laboratory at the University of Adelaide in 1903) aims to increase access to PBT in Australasia and offer a patient-centred care approach.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPediatr Blood Cancer
January 2024
There are inequitable health outcomes for Aboriginal children with cancer. A quality improvement audit performed at our institution through interviews with families and healthcare workers has highlighted individual, systematic and cultural barriers to equitable and culturally safe healthcare for Aboriginal patients, in addition to facilitators and recommendations for improvements.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdvance care planning (ACP) is crucial in supporting optimal, patient-centered care for adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with life-limiting illnesses and can reduce unwanted outcomes at end-of-life. While several ACP tools and interventions have been designed for AYAs, most of these were developed in the United States of America (USA). This paper describes a study designed to adapt the AYA ACP tool, Voicing My CHOiCES (VMC), for the Australian population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChromosomal rearrangements involving the gene occur frequently in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). -rearranged ALL ( ALL) has poor long-term survival rates and is the most common ALL subtype in infants less than 1 year of age. ALL frequently occurs with additional chromosomal abnormalities including disruption of the gene, usually by exon deletion.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCardio-oncology is a new multidisciplinary area of expertise that seeks to pre-emptively and proactively address cardiac complications that emerge during and following cancer therapy. Modern therapies including molecular targeted therapy and immunotherapy have broadened the agents that can cause cardiac sequelae, often with complications arising within days to weeks of therapy. Several international guidelines have been developed for the acute monitoring of cardio-oncology side effects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The Australian Bragg Centre for Proton Therapy and Research (ABCPTR) will be Australia's first proton beam therapy (PBT) facility. A model was developed to predict associated public hospital care requirements for patients during PBT, to facilitate resource planning for pediatric, adolescent and young adult (AYA), and adult public hospitals in South Australia.
Methods: National incidence rates for specific cancer indications were obtained from the Australian Childhood Cancer Registry, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and published data.
J Paediatr Child Health
August 2022
Aim: To identify barriers in the understanding and provision of optimal palliative care to Aboriginal children with cancer by health-care staff, with the aim to support education and training that highlights the importance of cultural, physical and spiritual needs at end-of-life.
Methods: Medical and nursing staff working in Departments of Palliative Care, Metabolic Medicine and Haematology/Oncology at the Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide, South Australia, were asked to complete a survey regarding their experience in treating Aboriginal children receiving palliative care. The survey addressed the understanding of cultural and spiritual needs, barriers encountered and opinions for improved services.
Over the first 2 months of 2021, vaccination coverage of staff at Hull Teaching Hospitals with BNT162b2 increased from 8.3% to 82.5% and was associated with a significant reduction in symptomatic and asymptomatic severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) cases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Presenting features, biology and outcome for childhood leukaemia are known to vary by ethnic origin, geographic location and socioeconomic group. This study aimed to compare presentation patterns, follow-up and clinical outcomes in Indigenous and non-Indigenous children with acute leukaemia in Australia, and to assess the impact of remoteness and area-based socioeconomic disadvantage on outcome.
Methods: A retrospective review of children aged between 1 day and 18 years who were diagnosed with acute leukaemia in South Australia (SA), Northern Territory (NT) and Western Australia (WA) between 2009 and 2018 was performed.
Objective: Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) in pediatric patients presents with single-system or multisystem disease. Accurate staging is essential for selecting the most appropriate therapy ranging from local surgery to chemotherapy.
Methods: A retrospective review was undertaken of reported fludeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography - computed tomography (PET-CT) scans performed in children with LCH from June 2006 to February 2017.
Background: Discoid lupus erythematosus (DLE) is a chronic form of cutaneous lupus, which can cause scarring. Many drugs have been used to treat this disease and some (such as thalidomide, cyclophosphamide and azathioprine) are potentially toxic. This is an update of a Cochrane Review first published in 2000, and previously updated in 2009.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Discoid lupus erythematosus is a chronic form of cutaneous (skin) lupus which can cause permanent scarring if treatment is inadequate. Many drugs have been used to treat this disease and some of these are potentially very toxic.
Objectives: To assess the effects of drugs for discoid lupus erythematosus.
J Am Acad Dermatol
September 2008
Background: Our recent population studies reported a prevalence of traction alopecia (TA) of 17.1% in African schoolgirls (6-21 years) and of 31.7% in women (18-86 years).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPemphigus is an uncommon but potentially life-threatening chronic autoimmune bullous disorder. Antibodies are directed against antigens (desmoglein 1 and 3) in the desmosomes linking keratinocytes and against acetylcholine receptors. Conventional treatment with high-dose corticosteroids, sometimes with adjuvant immunosuppressive agents, may be associated with very serious adverse effects.
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