(Press-News.org) PLYMOUTH MEETING, PA [September 25, 2023] —Evelyn Handel Zapata, PharmD, BCPS, BCOP, Senior Director of Drugs & Biologics Programs at the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) was named a 40 Under 40 in Cancer: Emerging Leader at a national reception in Chicago in June. This achievement comes as the NCCN Chemotherapy Order Templates (NCCN Templates®) program celebrates its 15th anniversary and launches new resources for a type of pediatric lymphoma today.
40 Under 40 in Cancer is an awards initiative that recognizes contributions being made across the field of cancer by rising stars and emerging leaders under the age of 40. The award is sponsored by The Association for Value-Based Cancer Care (AVBCC), The National Community Oncology Dispensing Association (NCODA), Swim Across America, Amplity Health, Servier, Takeda, Jasper Health, BeiGene, and Cumberland Pharmaceuticals.
“Dr. Handel [Zapata] is an extremely diligent and collaborative pharmacist who [helps] set protocols, standards, templates, and guidance for oncology care providers,” said Eve Segal, PharmD, BCOP, Lead Clinical Pharmacist, Hematology/Oncology at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center/UW Medicine. “She is also passionate about patient education, and through her leadership within HOPA [the Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association], has supported the creation of 70 IV education handouts and over 100 oral chemotherapy handouts that are used by hundreds of oncology practitioners every day. Evelyn's work at NCCN has helped advance pharmacist involvement and provided pharmacist perspective on important national guidelines.”
New Resources for Pediatric Oncology
This year marks the 15th anniversary of the launch of the NCCN Templates® and heralds the publication of the first NCCN Templates for a childhood cancer. The NCCN Templates® contain critical information on dosing, administration, side effects and other monitoring and safety parameters, and are used by clinicians to ensure that they are delivering optimal treatment as recommended by the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®). The newly launched resources for improving the safe use of systemic therapy when treating pediatric aggressive mature b-cell lymphomas were first published on September 25, 2023.
There are now 2,531 published NCCN Templates covering 108 unique cancer types across 58 different NCCN Guidelines®, with 328 new templates added in the past year alone. They are licensed for use in a growing number of electronic health record systems, utilization management tools, and clinical decision support tools. In addition to users who access the templates through an HIT licensor, in 2022 more than 10,000 unique subscribers downloaded more than 1.7 million NCCN Templates directly from NCCN.org/templates.
Dr. Handel Zapata joined NCCN in 2015 and serves as Senior Director of the Drugs & Biologics Programs, where she is involved with management of the NCCN Templates® as well as providing oversight and management for the NCCN Drugs and Biologics Compendium (NCCN Compendium®).
“Evelyn exemplifies the core values we embrace at NCCN, including passion and innovation to advance high-quality cancer care,” said NCCN CEO Robert W. Carlson, MD. “She leads a team dedicated to providing the best information for the safe and effective use of drugs and biologics in cancer care. The work they do truly makes a difference for people with cancer. I am grateful for Evelyn’s ongoing contributions to NCCN and the field of oncology and congratulate her on this achievement.”
“It was an honor to see the work that my colleagues and I do to improve the safe use of chemotherapy be recognized in this way,” said Dr. Handel Zapata. “I am grateful to HOPA for nominating me, and grateful to my team for all of their efforts over the years, most recently in the launch of a new pediatric cancer resource. I feel privileged to be part of this work advancing NCCN’s mission to help all people with cancer to live better lives.”
Dr. Handel Zapata’s team at NCCN includes 12 oncology nurses and pharmacists, including two specializing in pediatric care. She also works with pharmacy directors across NCCN’s Member Institutions as part of the NCCN Pharmacy Directors Forum. In addition to her responsibilities at NCCN, Dr. Handel Zapata also serves as the Chair of the HOPA Patient Education Committee and the President of the International Society of Oncology Pharmacy Practitioners (ISOPP).
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About the National Comprehensive Cancer Network
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) is a not-for-profit alliance of leading cancer centers devoted to patient care, research, and education. NCCN is dedicated to improving and facilitating quality, effective, equitable, and accessible cancer care so all patients can live better lives. The NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®) provide transparent, evidence-based, expert consensus recommendations for cancer treatment, prevention, and supportive services; they are the recognized standard for clinical direction and policy in cancer management and the most thorough and frequently-updated clinical practice guidelines available in any area of medicine. The NCCN Guidelines for Patients® provide expert cancer treatment information to inform and empower patients and caregivers, through support from the NCCN Foundation®. NCCN also advances continuing education, global initiatives, policy, and research collaboration and publication in oncology. Visit NCCN.org for more information.
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Studying prehistoric production processes of birch bark tar using computational modelling reveals what kinds of cognition were required for the materials produced by Neanderthal and early modern humans. Researchers of Team Langejans in the Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) department (TU Delft) recently published two papers on one of the world’s oldest transformative technologies, publishing their findings in Nature Scientific Reports.
Measuring complexity
Birch bark tar is the first time we see evidence of creating a new material, ...
LA JOLLA (September 25, 2023)—Salk Institute Assistant Professors Christina Towers and Deepshika Ramanan were named V Scholars by the V Foundation for Cancer Research. They will each receive $600,000 over three years to fund their unique cancer research goals.
“On behalf of all our Salk colleagues, we are proud to congratulate Christie and Shika on this outstanding recognition,” says Salk President Gerald Joyce. “Through their dedication and innovative approaches, they both embody Salk’s mission to push the boundaries of knowledge and make meaningful impact in the world.”
Towers was named to the first class of recipients of V Foundation’s A Grant ...
Long COVID patients have clear differences in immune and hormone function from patients without the condition, according to a new study led by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Yale School of Medicine.
The research, published in the September 25 issue of Nature, is the first to show specific blood biomarkers that can accurately identify patients with long COVID.
“These findings are important—they can inform more sensitive testing for long COVID patients and personalized treatments for long COVID that have, until now, not had a proven scientific rationale,” says Principal Investigator David Putrino, ...
Studies of a ‘future-proof’ vaccine candidate have shown that just one antigen can be modified to provide a broadly protective immune response in animals. The studies suggest that a single vaccine with combinations of these antigens – a substance that causes the immune system to produce antibodies against it – could protect against an even greater range of current and future coronaviruses.
The vaccine antigen technology, developed by the University of Cambridge and spin-out DIOSynVax in early 2020, provided protection against all known variants of SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – as well as other ...
About The Study: In this systematic review and meta-analysis of 10 studies, physical restraint was uncommon, occurring in less than 1% of encounters, but adult Black patients experienced a significantly higher risk of physical restraint in emergency department settings compared with other racial groups. Emergency departments should carefully consider, and take steps to address, how racism may affect disparate use of restraints among adult patients.
Authors: Vidya Eswaran, M.D., of the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, is the corresponding author.
To access the embargoed study: Visit ...
About The Study: This analysis of 80 online marijuana dispensaries based in 32 states found that most lacked adequate age verification features and most accepted nontraceable payment methods, enabling youth to hide their transactions. Almost 1 in 5 online dispensaries required no formal age verification at any stage of the purchasing process.
Authors: Ruth L. Milanaik, D.O., of Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children’s Medical Center of New York in Lake Success, is the corresponding author.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/
(doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2023.3656)
Editor’s ...
About The Study: The results of this study suggest that select specialties in academic medicine have bridged diversity gaps in academic medical leadership whereas others continue to lag behind.
Authors: Charles S. Day, M.D., M.B.A., of Henry Ford Health in Detroit, is the corresponding author.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/
(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.35529)
Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and ...
New Haven, Conn. — People who have experienced brain fog, confusion, pain, and extreme fatigue for months or longer after being infected with the COVID-19 virus exhibit different immune and hormonal responses to the virus than those not diagnosed with long COVID, according to a new study by researchers at Yale School of Medicine and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
The discovery of these distinct responses can help scientists for the first time identify the causes — and potentially ...
Francis Crick Institute press release
Under strict embargo: 16:00hrs BST 25 September 2023
Peer reviewed
Observational study
People
Antiviral drug linked to SARS-CoV-2 mutations
Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute, the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, the University of Liverpool, the University of Cape Town and UKHSA have uncovered a link between an antiviral drug for COVID-19 infections called molnupiravir and a pattern of mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Molnupiravir works by inducing mutations in the virus’s ...
The international study, published in Nature Human Behaviour, analysed millions of tweets by members of Congress over the last decade. Its findings showed both Republican and Democratic politicians were increasingly sharing their beliefs and opinions as well as evidence-based information. But among Republicans, their expression of honestly-held beliefs and opinions was strongly linked to less trustworthy information sources.
Lead author Jana Lasser, a postdoctoral research fellow in computational social science at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz), said: “We wanted to find out what reasons and social changes contribute to people sharing ...
