Pharmacists at the Forefront of Navigating Novel Cancer Therapies: Eileen Peng, PharmD

Novel therapies such as chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy and bispecific antibodies have led to an evolution in the role of the pharmacist in care teams for patients with cancer, explained Eileen Peng, PharmD, vice president, chief administrator, and pharmacy officer, Astera Cancer Care. Their jobs are no longer purely a dispensing role but instead encompass patient selection and management of adverse effects.

Peng recently participated in an Institute for Value-Based Medicine^® event hosted by The American Journal of Managed Care^® in Princeton, New Jersey, and moderated the panel discussion “Pharmacy Decision-Making in Oncology.”

This transcript has been lightly edited; captions were auto-generated.

Transcript

How have the roles of pharmacists and pharmacy teams evolved with the delivery of CAR T-cell therapy and bispecific antibodies?

The pharmacist and the pharmacy team role has evolved tremendously with CAR T and bispecifics, because we move from dispensing—pure dispensing—to managing patient selection, managing side effects, [and] providing education. Mostly we also get involved with coordinating care between the provider, patient caretakers, and the patients.

Can you discuss the patient selection piece a bit more?

Not every patient is qualified or appropriate for CAR T and bispecifics. There are many, many treatments [a] patient can go through now. The right patient selection is very, very important. We need to know when and when is the right time and what type of patient could benefit from it.

What interventions or protocols can pharmacists implement in a multidisciplinary workflow to proactively manage and mitigate potential toxicities in patients being treated with these novel therapies?

Pharmacists are very close to patients and lab results. We are often the first one to realize their symptoms come up or a subtle change [in the labs]. We can actually use our knowledge to adjust the dose or change treatment and even put some prophylaxis there to treat the side effect and keep patient on treatment longer.