News in brief: Haematologist wins Stem Cell Prize; Early surgery safe after ticagrelor; Cancer patients urged to get boosters after two months

17 Nov 2021

Haematologist wins Stem Cell Prize

Associate Professor Siok Tey a haematologist clinician researcher at QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute and Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital has been awarded the 2021 Metcalf Prize for Stem Cell Research.

According to the National Stem Cell Foundation of Australia, the prize recognises Associate Professor Tey’s work on improving the outcomes of bone marrow transplantation by using gene-modified regulatory T cells to treat Graft-Versus-Host Disease (GVHD).

Associate Professor Tey says she will use the $55,000 award to further her research into improving outcomes for bone marrow transplantation.

She is also strongly focused on novel gene-modified cellular immunotherapies, especially Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cells, for the treatment of cancer.


Patients safely undergo CABG within a few days off ticagrelor

Patients on ticagrelor may be able to undergo coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery sooner after stopping medication than typically recommended, according to findings presented at the American Heart Association 2021 meeting.

A study of 143 people who previously suffered heart attacks, received ticagrelor and required CABG found patients could safely have surgery two to three days after stopping medication, with no increased risk of early post-surgical bleeding versus five to seven days.

The rate of severe or massive perioperative bleeding was similar between groups, at 4.6% in early surgery patients and 5.2% in the standard group.

Some patients in the standard group had to have CABG surgery sooner than their planned date due to recurrent angina, heart attack or ventricular arrhythmias, while none in the early group had to have surgery before two days post-treatment.

Patients with shorter time to surgery also reduced their hospital stays by three days, compared with the standard of care, lead study author, University of Ottawa Heart Institute cardiologist Professor Derek So and his team noted.

“Research such as this, with people randomly allocated to early vs. delayed surgery, is integral to assure cardiologists and surgeons that early surgery is safe, especially since it conflicts with the present guidelines for people who are taking ticagrelor,” Professor So said in a statement.

“Furthermore, although our study was not large enough to evaluate whether early surgery protects people from suffering early recurrent heart attacks or angina, it opens this hypothesis and may prompt future research in the area,” he concluded.


Cancer patients urged to get boosters after two months

People with cancer have been reminded of the importance of having a booster dose of Covid vaccine, which may be given as early as two months after completing the primary course of two vaccinations.

At a media briefing on 14 November, Kirsten Pilatti, CEO of the Breast Cancer Network of Australia (BCNA) said it was crucial that people with cancer who were immunocompromised because of treatment received an additional dose of vaccine to provide minimum protection against the virus.,

“Today I want to send a very direct message to anyone, whether you’ve been diagnosed with breast cancer or any other cancers … any other immuno-suppressed. We need you to see the third dose as a very important part of your treatment, not as a booster, but as part of your protection,” she said

“And if someone in your life has been diagnosed with a chronic disease or is in treatment, it is just as essential that you play the role of getting the third dose or the second dose, or the first, to help not only protect yourself, but to protect those people in your life that you love,” she added

Ms Pilatti pointed to ATAGI advice, which recommends that a third dose of COVID-19 vaccine be administered to eligible immunocompromised individuals two to six months after the second dose.

And in exceptional circumstances where more rapid protection is required (e.g. an outbreak setting or a significant increase in immunosuppression such as a patient on chronic immunosuppressive therapy requiring the urgent addition of an additional immunosuppressive agent), ATAGI considers a minimum interval of four weeks between the 2nd and 3rd dose to be acceptable.

ATAGI said it recognised that a longer interval between second and third doses may have confer greater vaccine efficacy. “However, this improved vaccine response needs to be weighed against the possibility that protection against COVID-19 from two doses could remain suboptimal until a third dose is administered,” it advised.

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