Pharmacy alum’s research shows how full-scope practice improves cancer care

“It’s a great honour and reminder that I'm making a change to the pharmacy profession.”

While completing a hospital residency in pharmacy oncology, Adrian de Boer (2T3) says he learned that providing cancer care is a great privilege.

“You're working with patients who are going through what is likely the most challenging time in their lives, and you get to help them in the ways that a pharmacist can,” says de Boer, who completed his residency at Alberta Health Services after graduating from the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy. “It is not uncommon for cancer patients to go from taking zero medications to more than a dozen. By utilizing our medication management expertise, we can have a huge impact, both to the patients and interprofessional team. Every day working in a cancer clinic is a privilege.”

“By utilizing our medication management expertise, we can have a huge impact, both to the patients and interprofessional team. Every day working in a cancer clinic is a privilege.”

de Boer recently received the 2025 Student Member Award from the Canadian Association of Pharmacists in Oncology (CAPhO), recognizing his contributions to oncology pharmacy during his residency and through his residency research project.

de Boer had been interested in oncology since taking undergraduate courses in immunology where he was fascinated by the idea of immunotherapy and harnessing the immune system to fight cancer. After completing his Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, he wanted to gain hands-on experience in cancer care and looked for residency opportunities with an oncology specialization. He was accepted to a hospital residency focused on oncology with Alberta Health Services.

Though far from his home of Toronto, the residency offered unique opportunities. As one of the few residencies in Canada specifically focused on oncology, it provided de Boer with valuable practical experience in oncology pharmacy practice. And, since pharmacists in Alberta have one of the broadest scopes of practice in Canada, it also gave him exposure to a wide range of pharmacy services.

During the one-year residency, he completed rotations at the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton, and the Tom Baker Cancer Centre and Alberta Children's Hospital in Calgary where he gained hands-on experience in oncology pharmacy care. He also completed a research project that evaluated a pharmacist-led clinic to ramp up doses of venetoclax, a drug used to treat chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). In this clinic, clinical pharmacists meet independently with patients three times weekly to ramp-up the dose of venetoclax and monitor for adverse effects like tumor lysis syndrome. Based on their assessment, pharmacists can independently prescribe and order labs to manage adverse effects.

de Boer and the research team found that the pharmacist-led clinic was a safe and effective way to manage CLL patients and could reduce patients’ visits to their hematologist during the ramp-up period.

Residency project helps highlight full scope of pharmacists in oncology

With encouragement from his residency supervisors, de Boer published the findings in the Journal of Oncology Pharmacy Practice. He was one of four researchers selected to present his findings at the International Society of Oncology Pharmacy Practitioners (ISOPP) CAPhO 2025 international symposium in BC. He also presented his research locally during hematology rounds at the Cross Cancer Institute, where the ramp-up clinic was located, to help increase awareness of the clinic among the hospital’s physicians.

“Presenting my research at these events was a true privilege. I believe it helped raise awareness—both internationally among pharmacists and locally among physicians from other specialties—about the incredible scope of practice pharmacists can have, and I hope it got them thinking about how pharmacists can take on similar roles within their interdisciplinary teams,” says de Boer. “The project highlighted our full scope and the things that we can do, and showed that we can and want to do more in patient care and are successful in doing so.”

Following the oncology residency, he started a year residency in cardiology at Alberta Health Services. His new residency project focuses on characterizing the cardiovascular risk profile of multiple myeloma patients who receive stem cell transplants – a project that has allowed him to combine his interests in cardiology and oncology.

Once the cardiology residency is complete, de Boer will return to Ontario and hopes to work in cancer care. He says he is looking forward to applying his knowledge and experience gained through his PharmD at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and the residencies to care for patients as an independent pharmacist.

“I am so thankful for my time as a student at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy. All the knowledge that I gained through the courses and rotations has been very helpful. The instructors and preceptors solidified a self-directed learning approach and pushed me to the point where I was ready for residency and could take on the kind of the tasks I did,” says de Boer.

“I am also thankful to have received the CAPhO Student Member award. I've been working hard with my head down trying to take advantage of every learning opportunity in residency, and the recognition from the oncology pharmacy community and my mentors helped me reflect on how far I’ve come. It’s a great honour and reminder that I'm making a change to the pharmacy profession.”