A Dull Day At Work...?

14 September 2023 (Thursday) - Oncology Central Update

The nice people at Oncology Central sent their update today. Much of it went over my head, but some might have stuck…

Editor's pick

JAVELIN Bladder Medley trial: avelumab-based combinations for advanced urothelial carcinoma

Our partner journal Future Oncology has recently published a Clinical Trial Protocol, which details the Phase II JAVELIN Bladder Medley umbrella trial (NCT05327530).

Latest news

Anti-CTLA-4 immunotherapy mobilizes microglia against glioblastoma

A study led by Salk Institute (CA, USA) scientists has shown that anti-CTLA-4 immunotherapy increases the survival of mice with glioblastoma.

ReIMAGINE study demonstrates feasibility of MRI-enhanced prostate cancer screening

Recently published in BMJ Oncology, results from the ReIMAGINE study demonstrate the feasibility of combining MRI with PSA testing to improve the detection of prostate cancer.

Gut feeling: AI tool predicts stomach cancer risk up to 3 years prior to diagnosis

AI successfully uses demographic information, medical history and routine laboratory findings to predict a patient’s risk of developing esophageal cancer up to 3 years before diagnosis.

13 September 2023 (Wednesday) - BTLP-TACT Exercise

With a few minutes spare I thought I might as well do some BTLP-TACT; after all it is nearly a week since they last sent me one of those emails telling me I’m not doing enough exercises…

I was presented with two cases:

28677 – a forty-nine year old woman requiring group & save for a splenectomy.
She grouped as B Rh(D) Positive with a negative antibody screen

33324 – a thirty-three year old woman in out patients requiring group & save for iron deficient anaemia
She grouped as A Rh(D) Positive with antibody screen positive in all three cells.
I performed antibody panels…
The enzyme panel was positive in cells 3 and 5 being consistent with anti-E
The IAT panel was positive in cells 1, 3, 5, 6, 9 and 10 being consistent with anti-E and anti-Fy(a) but did not exclude anti Lu(a)

I got the green light

13 September 2023 (Wednesday) - A Competition

When I first got terrified about being called up for CPD audit I signed up to pretty much every work-related mailing list I could find. I am currently signed up to far too many. Most of which send me stuff which never gets mentioned here.

Stuff from the FutureNHS Collaboration Platform is one of these – I get stuff from them all the time… it never gets mentioned here… until today. They’ve got a competition going:

Competition - Artificial Intelligence

We’re running a competition for members.

To enter, write 50 words or fewer in response to the following question:

‘How will Artificial Intelligence transform healthcare over the next 10 years?’

My reply:

It won’t - AI cannot compete with human recalcitrance.
How long does someone endure that irritating symptom before seeking medical advice?
How many people drink and smoke rather than exercise?
How many healthcare managers will see AI as a threat to their own little empire and fight against it?

I bet this don’t get accepted…

10 September 2023 (Tuesday) - Stago Newsletter

The nice people at Stago sent their monthly update today. You can see it by clicking here.

This month they are announcing the launch of their latest analyser. It looks good from all the blurb, but it would, wouldn’t it?

I used to use Stago devices back in the day. I was always struck by how long they took to get themselves ready to analyse; oh, so slow. I wonder if the new machine is any faster?

11 September 2023 (Monday) - NEQAS 2304 DM

The results of 2304DM became available today…
I saw

Red Cells

Boat cells

Fragments

Howell Jolly Body

Hypochromic

Microcytic

Microspherocytes

Nucleated red cell

Stomatocytes

Target cells

Wbc

Vacuoloated monocyte

smear cell

Plts

Megakaryocyte fragment

Numbers reduced

I said it was haemolytic with ITP.
It was TTP in someone with HIV… I spotted the salient features.

Pages