Scalp cooling therapy for chemotherapy-induced hair loss in patients with breast or gynecological cancers-an Asian tertiary institution experience.

Purpose: Scalp cooling therapy (SCT) improves chemotherapy-induced alopecia (CIA), but there are few published data about its efficacy in an Asian-predominant population. We report our tertiary institution experience of SCT in patients with breast or gynaecological cancers undergoing chemotherapy.

Methods: The Paxman scalp cooling system was employed for eligible women with breast or gynaecological cancers receiving anthracycline or taxane-based chemotherapy.

Early detection of phlebitis among hematology-oncology patients: a best practice implementation project.

Introduction: Peripherally-inserted venous catheters (PIVC) are essential for cancer patients to receive treatment. Phlebitis is a major complication of PIVC. Currently, nurses' assessment of phlebitis mainly involves visual inspection.

Reducing Chemotherapy Waiting Times in the Ambulatory Setting of a Tertiary Cancer Centre Using a Design Thinking Approach.

Introduction: Chemotherapy is complex. We hypothesized that a design thinking approach could redesign preparatory processes and reduce wait times.

Methods: A multidisciplinary process mapping exercise was undertaken to understand the current processes, followed by proposing and testing solutions.

Implementing an evidence-based structured education and management program in an inpatient adult oncology setting to improve patients' pain control.

Background And Aims: Cancer-related pain is prevalent across the cancer trajectory, and is probably one of the most feared of all cancer symptoms for patients and their families. Although there were guidelines and framework regarding the management of cancer pain, pain control among patients remain suboptimal. This best practice implementation project aimed to improve patients' perception on cancer pain management and pain control through implementing structured patient and family education and patient information leaflet (PIL) on managing cancer pain.

Nurses' communication difficulties when providing end-of-life care in the oncology setting: a cross-sectional study.

Purpose: To (1) examine the communication difficulties nurses experience when providing end-of-life (EOL) care, (2) establish the correlation between communication difficulties across various stakeholders and (3) determine the impact sociodemographic factors has on the communication difficulties experienced.

Methods: 124/178 (69.7%) nurses from oncology wards of a tertiary hospital were recruited.

Safety and tolerability of cryocompression as a method of enhanced limb hypothermia to reduce taxane-induced peripheral neuropathy.

Purpose: Severe peripheral neuropathy is a common dose-limiting toxicity of taxane chemotherapy, with no effective treatment. Frozen gloves have shown to reduce the severity of neuropathy in several studies but comes with the incidence of undesired side effects such as cold intolerance and frostbite in extreme cases. A device with thermoregulatory features which can safely deliver tolerable amounts of cooling while ensuring efficacy is required to overcome the deficiencies of frozen gloves.

To reduce the average length of stay of patients who are admitted for DA-EPOCH-R chemotherapy regimen.

Healthcare institutions are often faced with bed crunch situation. As a result, patients requiring inpatient hospital stay for cancer treatment are delayed and this could lead to compromised overall disease response. Apart from the early discharge of patients to step-down care and explore alternatives of treatment setting, one of the ways to reduce length of stay is to improve on the efficiency of work processes.

Prognostic factors for risk stratification of adult cancer patients with chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia patients are heterogeneous in their risk of adverse outcomes. Management strategies are tailored according to level of risk. Many emerging predictors for risk stratification remain controversial being based on single studies only.

Prospective audit of post-chemotherapy febrile neutropenia in patients with solid cancer and lymphoma in two Singaporean cancer centres.

Introduction: Febrile neutropenia (FN) is a significant cause of mortality and morbidity in oncology and haematology units worldwide. The overall mortality in hospital surveys in Singapore surveys on post-chemotherapy FN has ranged between 3.0% and 8.

Prognostic factors for risk stratification of adult cancer patients with chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Increasing numbers of studies identify new prognostic factors for categorising chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia adult cancer patients into high- or low-risk groups for adverse outcomes. These groupings are used to tailor therapy according to level of risk. However many emerging factors with prognostic significance remain controversial, being based on single studies only.

The experience of being a neutropenic cancer patient in an acute care isolation room: a systematic review of qualitative evidence.

Background: Protective isolation is one of the precautionary measures put in place for neutropenic cancer patients, where patients will be placed in an isolation room during their medical treatment in the hospital. The purpose of this practice is to minimise neutropenic patients from contracting nosocomial infection and the length of stay in the isolation room varies depending on their medical condition. It has been reported in some literature that this group of patients experience social isolation, a wide range of emotions and psychological burdens such as depression and anxiety as a result of staying in the isolation room.

Prospective audit of febrile neutropenia management at a tertiary university hospital in Singapore.

Introduction: Febrile neutropenia (FN) remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Oncology/Haematology units. We launched a new protocol for FN management that incorporates risk stratification at our institute from October 2008. An audit was performed concurrently to evaluate the protocol and to define the epidemiology of FN locally.

Impact of postgrafting immunosuppressive regimens on nonrelapse mortality and survival after nonmyeloablative allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant using the fludarabine and low-dose total-body irradiation 200-cGy.

The development of nonmyeloablative (NM) hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) has extended the potential curative treatment option of allografting to patients in whom it was previously contraindicated because of advanced age or comorbidity. Acute and chronic graft versus host disease (GVHD) and its consequent nonrelapse mortality (NRM), remains the major limitation of NM HCT. In this report, we analyzed the outcome of 67 patients (median age, 45 years) with hematologic diseases receiving NM conditioning with fludarabine 90 mg/m(2) and total body irradiation (TBI) 200-cGy, followed by filgrastim-mobilized peripheral blood stem cell transplant from HLA identical (n = 61), 5/6 antigen-matched related (n = 1), 6/6 antigen-matched unrelated (n = 3), and 5/6 antigen-matched unrelated (n = 2) donors.