13 April 2018 (Friday) - Reflecting

Here’s something from the nice people at Lablogatory about the latest theories on training new staff.

Back in the day I used to enjoy training. A colleague with whom I used to work recently started working with us. She told me about how everyone said I was so good at training.

Would I like to get involved with the training again? I don’t know…. That was then…and this is now… It’s a different life now…

13 April 2018 (Friday) - Oncologist Newsletter

The Oncologist newsletter arrived today. Loads of interesting stuff including an article on the treatment of lymphomas:

Bendamustine plus Rituximab Versus R-CHOP as First-Line Treatment for Patients with Follicular Lymphoma Grade 3A: Evidence from a Multicenter, Retrospective Study

Patrizia Mondello, Normann Steiner, Wolfgang Willenbacher, Claudio Cerchione, Davide Nappi, Endri Mauro, Simone Ferrero, Salvatore Cuzzocrea, Michael Mian

Follicular lymphoma is the most common indolent lymphoma worldwide. Rituximab plus bendamustine (R-B) has been shown to improve outcome and reduce toxicity compared with rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and prednisone (R-CHOP) in follicular lymphoma; however, in clinical practice in many centers, R-CHOP is still the preferred treatment. This article reports the results of a study that assessed patients with follicular lymphoma grade 3A treated with either RCHOP or R-B in five European cancer centers.

12 April 2018 (Thursday) - Discouraged

Here’s something with which I was profoundly disappointed. Looking down the microscope I saw Howell-Jolly bodies and nucleated red cells… and inclusions which were intermediate between the two.

I posted to the Facebook Haematology Interest Group. I was hoping for a discussion as to when a Howell-Jolly body becomes an NRBC nucleus (I indeed it does) but instead everyone gave a one-word answer of identification and after a day the admin turned off commenting.

I was rather disappointed.. and left feeling very uninclined to contribute further.