{"id":1272,"date":"2020-11-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-10T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/protherics2.aazzxx.com\/insights\/how-a-new-online-clinical-support-tool-is-helping-cancer-patients\/"},"modified":"2022-11-15T11:19:40","modified_gmt":"2022-11-15T11:19:40","slug":"how-a-new-online-clinical-support-tool-is-helping-cancer-patients","status":"publish","type":"insights","link":"https:\/\/serb.com\/nl\/insights\/how-a-new-online-clinical-support-tool-is-helping-cancer-patients\/","title":{"rendered":"How a new, online clinical support tool is helping cancer patients"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Methotrexate (MTX) is used to fight a range of cancers in adults and children, including osteosarcoma, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and several types of lymphoma.<\/p>\n<p>Yet like any number of other life-saving therapies, it can also create complications in certain patients: when administered in high doses, those with some degree of renal failure can\u2019t clear MTX fast enough, which in turn can cause severe toxicity. To complicate matters, MTX itself can cause kidney injury, leading to the delay of its own elimination from the body.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s an issue our antidote,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/voraxaze.com\/\">Voraxaze&nbsp;<\/a>(glucarpidase), can help solve. But because it happens so infrequently, it can be difficult for physicians, nurses and pharmacists to know when to administer this rescue medication. Delayed MTX elimination can be an oncologic emergency, but it is defined as occurring only when MTX concentrations are greater than 2 standard deviations of the mean MTX excretion curve specific for the MTX dose; this is not a measure that is readily ascertained from clinical experience. Clinicians also need to account for serum creatine levels (an indicator of kidney function), certain demographic information, and when the sample of MTX concentration was taken.<\/p>\n<p>The bottom line? It\u2019s an understandably difficult calculation to make for healthcare professionals, most of whom have likely not dealt with MTX toxicity before. How can we make MTX pharmacokinetics (PK) easier?<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s where a new, web-based clinical decision support tool comes in.<\/p>\n<p>Supported by an unrestricted grant from BTG Specialty Pharmaceuticals, a team from the Cincinnati Children\u2019s Hospital Medical Center Department of Pharmacology \u2013 led by Dr. Laura Ramsey \u2013 created&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/mtxpk.org\/\"><b>mtxpk.org<\/b><\/a>&nbsp;to help monitor and predict delayed MTX clearance.<\/p>\n<p>In a nutshell, here\u2019s how it works: a clinician inputs the age, gender, height, and weight of the patient, the MTX dose and infusion duration, and at least one MTX plasma concentration measurement and one serum creatine measurement. From there, the tool will display the concentration vs. time curve (i.e. the PK curve) for that individual patient, overlaid upon the population-predicted curve for that dose. In doing so, it quickly provides model-informed guidance on the patient\u2019s need for Voraxase, as well as an estimate of when the patient may reach the MTX concentration threshold necessary for hospital discharge.<\/p>\n<p>Aside from its real-time, individualized guidance, the site is just another example of how novel data science is making its way into medicine. The model used to develop&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/mtxpk.org\/\">mtxpk.org<\/a>, for instance, was based on 31,672 MTX plasma concentrations from 772 patients.<\/p>\n<p>The web-based tool is free and open source. No patient data is stored upon use, however, it does allow clinicians to save data to their local device for future reference. A PDF of the patient\u2019s PK curve can be downloaded, printed or saved.<\/p>\n<p>Complications from high doses of MTX may be relatively rare \u2013 yet it\u2019s this very rarity that can make it difficult to diagnose and know how to effectively treat. Fortunately this new, easy-to-use website has the potential to make all the difference.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-style-default\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"461\" src=\"https:\/\/serb.com:443\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/MTXPK-1024x461.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1348\" srcset=\"https:\/\/serb.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/MTXPK-1024x461.png 1024w, https:\/\/serb.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/MTXPK-300x135.png 300w, https:\/\/serb.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/MTXPK-768x346.png 768w, https:\/\/serb.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/MTXPK-1536x692.png 1536w, https:\/\/serb.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/MTXPK.png 2005w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>A sample concentration vs time curve of an adult lymphoma patient with delayed elimination created by the mtxpk.org tool.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Methotrexate (MTX) is used to fight a range of cancers in adults and children, including osteosarcoma, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and several types of lymphoma. Yet like any number of other life-saving therapies, it can also create complications in certain patients: when administered in high doses, those with some degree of renal failure can\u2019t clear MTX [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1348,"template":"","subjects":[114,112,113],"class_list":["post-1272","insights","type-insights","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","subjects-innovation","subjects-methotrexate-toxicity-critical-care","subjects-oncology"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How a new, online clinical support tool is helping cancer patients - SERB Pharmaceuticals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/serb.com\/insights\/how-a-new-online-clinical-support-tool-is-helping-cancer-patients\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How a new, online clinical support tool is helping cancer patients - SERB Pharmaceuticals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Methotrexate (MTX) is used to fight a range of cancers in adults and children, including osteosarcoma, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and several types of lymphoma. Yet like any number of other life-saving therapies, it can also create complications in certain patients: when administered in high doses, those with some degree of renal failure can\u2019t clear MTX [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/serb.com\/insights\/how-a-new-online-clinical-support-tool-is-helping-cancer-patients\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SERB Pharmaceuticals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-11-15T11:19:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/serb.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/MTXPK.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2005\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"903\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/serb.com\\\/insights\\\/how-a-new-online-clinical-support-tool-is-helping-cancer-patients\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/serb.com\\\/insights\\\/how-a-new-online-clinical-support-tool-is-helping-cancer-patients\\\/\",\"name\":\"How a new, online clinical support tool is helping cancer patients - SERB Pharmaceuticals\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/serb.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/serb.com\\\/insights\\\/how-a-new-online-clinical-support-tool-is-helping-cancer-patients\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/serb.com\\\/insights\\\/how-a-new-online-clinical-support-tool-is-helping-cancer-patients\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/serb.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/11\\\/MTXPK.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-11-10T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-15T11:19:40+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/serb.com\\\/insights\\\/how-a-new-online-clinical-support-tool-is-helping-cancer-patients\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/serb.com\\\/insights\\\/how-a-new-online-clinical-support-tool-is-helping-cancer-patients\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/serb.com\\\/insights\\\/how-a-new-online-clinical-support-tool-is-helping-cancer-patients\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/serb.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/11\\\/MTXPK.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/serb.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/11\\\/MTXPK.png\",\"width\":2005,\"height\":903},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/serb.com\\\/insights\\\/how-a-new-online-clinical-support-tool-is-helping-cancer-patients\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/serb.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How a new, online clinical support tool is helping cancer patients\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/serb.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/serb.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"SERB Pharmaceuticals\",\"description\":\"SERB Pharmaceuticals\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/serb.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How a new, online clinical support tool is helping cancer patients - SERB Pharmaceuticals","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/serb.com\/insights\/how-a-new-online-clinical-support-tool-is-helping-cancer-patients\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How a new, online clinical support tool is helping cancer patients - SERB Pharmaceuticals","og_description":"Methotrexate (MTX) is used to fight a range of cancers in adults and children, including osteosarcoma, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and several types of lymphoma. 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