Abstract

For decades health care workers (HCWs) have dedicated themselves in order to improve their knowledge and understanding of diseases and their treatments in order to help their patients. At times, they have donated their bodies and caused harm to their health, when using new technologies or drugs with unknown side effects, as did Marie Curie when she was researching treatment with radium.

Antineoplastic drugs are largely used in the world today and, because of their activity, there is much concern about the exposure to health care workers during preparation, distribution and administration to the patient. Many studies have clearly proven contamination of preparation surfaces and absorption, metabolism and excretion of these chemicals in HCWs.

Many other studies have shown severe health hazards on HCWs including chromosomal defects.

In the last year, closed systems (CSTD) were developed in order to avoid exposure and protect HCWs from contamination. We will present a few of the existing and future closed systems. We will also address and the implication of new fields like immunotherapy, biological treatments and nanoparticles.