Pediatric Oncology Pharmacist

Dr Rizal Husaini bin Razali graduated from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) in 2003, and completed his training at Hospital Tuanku Ampuan Rahimah (HTAR), Klang before he was posted to Hospital Kuala Lumpur. In 2009, he earned his Master’s in Clinical Pharmacy (MPharm) from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and in 2021, he completed his PhD at Integrative Pharmacogenomics Institute (iPROMISE) in Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM). Dr Rizal began his career as a clinical pharmacist from 2004 until August 2016 at Institute of Paediatric, Hospital Kuala Lumpur (IPHKL). During his career as a clinical pharmacist, he has been credentialed as Clinical Pharmacist in Paediatric Oncology in year 2016 and responsible for planning and managing all clinical pharmacy service related to paediatric haematology and oncology patients at IPHKL specifically for Ward KK3. Dr Rizal was among the first pharmacists in the Ministry of Health to be offered an opportunity to attend a four-week Specialization Training Pharmacotherapy in Paediatric Oncology Pharmacy at McMaster Children’s Hospital, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada under supervision of Dr John T. Wiernikowski (PharmD) in 2007. He is also a life member of the Malaysian Society of Paediatric Haematology & Oncology (MASPHO) since 2005. His doctoral research examined the relationships between levels of MTX and the responses of children with ALL, specifically to correlate the genetic polymorphisms of transporter proteins (ABCC2 and SLCO1B1), enzyme metabolism (MTHFR) and transcription factor (ARID5B) with levels of MTX and toxicity of the patients. Based on his expertise in paediatric haemato-oncology pharmacogenomics and clinical pharmacy, he has published his researched paper in Pediatric Hematology & Oncology journal in 2020 entitled ‘Association of ABCC2 with levels and toxicity of methotrexate in Malaysian Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL)’