Alana Hippensteele is lead editor at Pharmacy Times®, Contemporary Clinic, and Pharmacy Times Oncology Edition®. She has a master's in Critical Theory and Creative Research from Pacific Northwest College of Art and a bachelor's degree in English and Art History. She has worked as an English instructor at Temple University and held editorial positions at American Cleaning & Hygiene and Tin House.
Serena Mitaly, PharmD, outlines how Ochsner Health is building a sustainable pharmacogenomics program by integrating clinical decision support tools into the EMR, educating providers, addressing reimbursement barriers, and expanding the role of PGx pharmacists in personalized medicine.
Andrew E. Esch, MD, MBA, discusses the need for systemic reforms to support pharmacist-led medication optimization in palliative and community-based care.
Pharmacy leaders from Cone Health discuss how robotic compounding technologies have improved safety, accuracy, and reliability in hazardous and sterile medication preparation across oncology and acute care settings.
Manish Agrawal, MD, discusses the implementation of psilocybin-assisted therapy in a community cancer setting, highlighting its potential to provide sustained relief from depression and anxiety and its significant efficacy advantage over selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors for patients with cancer.
Gianni Scappaticci, PharmD, BCOP, outlines a personalized, evidence-based approach to managing steroid-refractory chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) in a post–haploidentical transplant patient, highlighting the rationale for using ruxolitinib, belumosudil, or their combination based on disease progression and fibrotic features.
Christopher Danes, PhD, discusses how discrete choice experiment data reveal key differences in patient and caregiver treatment preferences for ALK-positive (ALK+) non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and how pharmacists can use these insights to guide shared decision-making, optimize supportive care, and personalize adherence strategies.
Gayathri Namasivayam, PhD, discusses how large language models are being used to extract structured oncology data from unstructured electronic health records to improve clinical efficiency, support real-world evidence generation, and enhance oncology pharmacy workflows.
Gianni Scappaticci, PharmD, BCOP, discusses key considerations in therapy selection, limitations of current treatments, and the evolving role of pharmacists in managing chronic graft-vs-host disease (cGVHD) through patient education, adherence support, and integration of emerging therapies.
Megan Ehret, PharmD, MS, BCPP, FAAPP, discusses the clinical benefits of long-acting injectables for treating alcohol use disorder and psychiatric conditions, highlighting the pharmacist’s role in improving adherence, addressing stigma, and expanding access to care.
Jaume Capdevila, MD, PhD, discusses phase 1 data showing promising efficacy and manageable safety for obrixtamig in patients with high DLL3-expressing extrapulmonary neuroendocrine carcinomas, along with ongoing trials evaluating its use in both monotherapy and combination settings.
Data from a phase 1b study showed significantly reduced toxicity compared with conventional oral dosing.
Manish Agrawal, MD, explores the evolving role of pharmacists in psychedelic-assisted therapy, highlighting ongoing efforts to develop standardized protocols and the emerging involvement of pharmacy teams in patient education and safety.
These changes are creating operational challenges for oncology infusion centers.
Manish Agrawal, MD, discusses the expanding influence of his group-based psychedelic therapy model in oncology and beyond, highlighting its adaptation in military posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) research, the sustained benefits of long-term patient integration, and growing institutional interest in psychedelic-assisted therapy.
Oncology pharmacists are increasingly shaping patient care by integrating remote care, medication reconciliation, and artificial intelligence (AI), as well as by addressing drug shortages.
At the 2025 Oncology Pharmacists Connect (OPC) meeting, Kevin Chen, PharmD, MS, BCOP, CPP, reviewed several key studies from the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, highlighting significant advancements in the treatment of small cell and non–small cell lung cancer.
At the 2025 Oncology Pharmacists Connect (OPC) meeting, Courtney Cavalieri, PharmD, BCOP, presented clinical trial findings in gastrointestinal (GI) cancers—including colon, gastric, pancreatic, and metastatic colorectal cancer—that highlight the expanding role of immunotherapy and targeted treatments.
At the 2025 Oncology Pharmacists Connect (OPC) meeting, Mya Tran, PharmD, BCOP, highlights the clinical promise, operational challenges, and evolving role of pharmacists in implementing precision medicine and genomics-driven cancer care.
Janet Espirito, PharmD, discusses real-world outcomes from a large community oncology study showing that patients with BRAF-mutated melanoma—including those with brain metastases—experienced similar benefit from frontline immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy.
Zahra Mahmoudjafari, PharmD, MBA, BCOP, FHOPA, co-chair of the 2025 Oncology Pharmacists Connect (OPC) meeting, discusses what makes the event unique, highlights key sessions, and shares her excitement for the educational and networking opportunities.
Manish Agrawal, MD, discusses emerging research on psychedelic-assisted therapy for patients with cancer, including innovative dyadic treatment models, challenges in capturing meaningful outcomes, and growing interest in integrating psychedelics into oncology and palliative care.
Juan Ovalles, MD, PhD, discusses how high placebo response rates driven by background therapy complicate lupus drug trials, and outlines evolving strategies in trial design, clinical practice, and pharmacist-led care to ensure investigational biologics are fairly evaluated and appropriately used in systemic lupus erythematosus.
Vincent Chung, MD, discusses key findings from the NAPOLI-3 trial and offers guidance for pharmacists on managing toxicities, adjusting dosing, and supporting patients receiving NALIRIFOX for metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
Laura Momoko Asakura, PharmD, BCOP, BCSPS, discusses the equitable use of oncology treatment pathway tools, highlighting that their utilization remains consistent across patient groups regardless of race, ethnicity, or insurance status.
Frank Qian, MD, MPH, discusses the integration of omega-3 fatty acid therapy alongside statins and PCSK9 inhibitors in cardiovascular risk management, highlighting the distinct mechanisms of benefit and lack of significant drug interactions.
Bempedoic acid is an effective option for statin-intolerant patients or those needing additional low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) reduction, with clinical trials showing cardiovascular benefits, key drug-drug interaction considerations, and special management factors in patients with comorbidities.
Kausik K. Ray, MD, discussed the importance of early, aggressive, and sustained LDL-C lowering for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease prevention, highlighting that the magnitude of cardiovascular risk reduction is independent of the specific lipid-lowering therapy used.
Børge G. Nordestgaard, MD, DMSc, discussed the role of remnant cholesterol as an independent risk factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and the emerging therapies that may help manage residual cardiovascular risk beyond low-density lipoprotein cholesterol reduction.
Incretin-based therapies, including GLP-1 and dual GLP-1/GIP receptor agonists, are transforming the management of type 2 diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular risk.
Frank Qian, MD, MPH, discusses clinical considerations for omega-3 fatty acid therapy, such as the patient populations who may benefit most and important safety concerns.
