A clinician's guide to biosimilars in oncology.

Biological agents or "biologics" are widely used in oncology practice for cancer treatment and for the supportive management of treatment-related side effects. Unlike small-molecule generic drugs, exact copies of biologics are impossible to produce because these are large and highly complex molecules produced in living cells. The term "biosimilar" refers to a biological product that is highly similar to a licensed biological product (reference or originator product) with no clinically meaningful differences in terms of safety, purity, or potency.

Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura in a patient with HIV from Zimbabwe.

A woman in her 40s originally from Zimbabwe presented to our accident department in the UK with a 4 day history of menorrhagia and exertional chest pain. Her clinical examination was unremarkable. Routine blood tests revealed a haemoglobin value of 6.

Automatic voice mail for delivering computer-generated anticoagulant dose advice to patients.

We tested an automated system which imported computer-generated clinical data on a patient s anticoagulant medication and produced conversational voice mail messages that were dialled out automatically to patients at home. During the first 18 months of use, more than 30,000 reports were delivered by telephone. The client population was 1755 patients, 51% of whom were aged over 70 years.