Antineoplastic drugs used in the treatment of cancers present with variable renal tolerance profiles. Among drugs with a potential for renal toxicity, platinum salts, and especially cisplatin is a well-known agent that may induce acute and chronic renal failure. The mechanisms of its renal toxicity and the means of its prevention are presented in this article which represent the Clinical Recommendation from the Special Interest Group on Cancer Care of the European Society of Clinical Pharmacy (ESCP).

Regorafenib (BAY 73-4506, Stivarga® Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceutical Inc) is an oral multikinase inhibitor with a distinct and wide-ranging profile of tyrosine kinase inhibition, resulting in antiangiogenic and antiproliferative properties in tumors. Single-agent regorafenib administered as a 160-mg daily dose for the first 21 days of a 28-day cycle is approved for use in patients with pretreated metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) and gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) progressing on imatinib and sunitinib, following publication of data from the phase III CORRECT and GRID studies respectively. Regorafenib is currently under phase III investigation in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and is in several phase II studies in patients with gastrointestinal (GI) tumors. This review describes the clinical development of regorafenib in patients with GI cancers, and highlights the key issues important for the modern day clinical pharmacist who forms part of the multidisciplinary team ensuring safe and effective delivery of the drug to the patient. This information is considered of particular importance to the clinical pharmacist for the future development of regorafenib in this treatment setting.

VTE is the second most common cause of death in cancer patients. Renal insufficiency is present in 50-60 % of cancer patients. Data from renal patients suggest that tinzaparin may be safe and effective for VTE treatment and prevention in cancer patients with renal failure.

BackgroundReactivation of hepatitis B or C virus can occur in patients undergoing chemotherapy. Recommendations for selective or systematic hepatitis B virus testing prior chemotherapy for solid tumors differ. The primary aim was to determine the seroprevalence of hepatitis B or C in a low endemic country. The second objective was to assess the relevance of a questionnaire on hepatitis B/C risk factors to consider a selective screening.MethodsPatients were prospectively tested for hepatitis B/C markers. HBs antigen positive patients and isolated anti-HBc positive patients with detectable viral load received antiviral preventive treatment. Patients or physicians completed the questionnaire on infection risk factors.ResultsAmong the 450 patients included, 388 were tested for all serological markers and had gastrointestinal (63.7 %), lung (31.2 %) and skin (4.6 %) cancers. The prevalence of subjects exposed to hepatitis B virus was 8.5 % (33/388). One patient tested positive for HBs antigen and received preventive treatment. Prevalence of subjects exposed to hepatitis C was 1.3 % (5/388). The questionnaire sensitivity was 45.5 %, 100 % and 50 % for detecting carriers of hepatitis B, C and one or the other, respectively.ConclusionsSeroprevalence of hepatitis B was low. Selective screening with the questionnaire was insufficiently sensitive. Systematic screening with serological tests prior to chemotherapy in patients with solid tumors is therefore relevant.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12885-015-2033-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.