Implementation, utilization, and evaluation of a pharmacist-driven romiplostim dosing service for patients with immune thrombocytopenia at a multisite cancer centre.

Introduction: Romiplostim is a thrombopoietin receptor agonist approved for the treatment of patients with chronic immune thrombocytopenia who have had an insufficient response to corticosteroids, immune globulin, or splenectomy. Dose adjustments of romiplostim are based on platelet counts and follow a dosing schema that requires frequent monitoring. As a quality improvement initiative to increase clinical efficiency and promote clinical pharmacy services at our institution, we developed a collaborative practice agreement and implemented a novel pharmacist-driven romiplostim dosing protocol.

Olaratumab: A New Strategy in the Treatment of Advanced Soft-Tissue Sarcoma.

Olaratumab is a monoclonal antibody that recently received accelerated approval for the treatment of advanced soft-tissue sarcomas in combination with doxorubicin for a histologic subtype in which anthracycline-containing regimens is appropriate and disease is not amenable to curative surgery or radiotherapy. It inhibits platelet-derived growth factor receptor alpha, leading to the inhibition of tumor cell proliferation, angiogenesis, and metastasis. In a phase II clinical trial, olaratumab in combination with doxorubicin met its predefined primary endpoint of improving progression-free survival and secondary endpoint of overall survival compared to doxorubicin monotherapy in patients with advanced soft-tissue sarcoma.