Maggie L. Shaw

From the 2023 Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) Nexus meeting, held in October, expert interviews and insightful updates on the Inflation Reduction Act, gene therapy affordability and access, and the 340B Drug Pricing Program comprise the conference highlights.

Justin Bekelman, MD, director of the Penn Center for Cancer Care Innovation, sat with our hosts Emeline Aviki, MD, MBA, and Stephen Schleicher, MD, MBA, for our final episode of 2023 to discuss the importance of collaboration between academic medicine and community oncology and testing innovative cancer care delivery in these settings.

In our coverage of myasthenia gravis this year, the top developments show the effects of COVID-19 continue to be uncovered, a new FDA approval for generalized disease, and assessing patient outcomes following uncontrolled disease and respiratory distress.

Two doses of batoclimab were evaluated for their effectiveness in patients with generalized myasthenia gravis (MG) who were seropositive.

Also known as Sanfilippo syndrome, this rare genetic syndrome has no known cures and what current treatment options are available are expensive and limited in supply.

Shiela Plasencia, director of practice support, Community Oncology Alliance (COA), discusses health equity initiatives and the challenges that follow.

This year’s top content from the fall meeting of the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) highlights both treatment gains made through innovative referral, screening, and assistance initiatives and the ongoing need to improve health equity and research inclusivity.

This phase 3 study investigated sacituzumab govitecan, a Trop-2–directed antibody-drug conjugate, vs treatment of physician’s choice in pretreated patients who have endocrine-resistant hormone receptor–positive/HER2-negative breast cancer, the most common form of breast cancer.

At last year’s San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, POSITIVE trial primary outcome data were presented on breast cancer–free interval, with women who paused endocrine therapy to attempt pregnancy having a similarly small rate of recurrence vs external controls from the SOFT and TEXT trials: 8.9% vs 9.2%.

Despite there being a great demand for data collection on sexual orientation and gender identity in the cancer space, individuals who identify as a sexual and gender minority remain poorly represented.

Many questions remain surrounding accurately classifying the risk of developing invasive breast cancer associated with the benign breast disease diagnoses of nonproliferative lesions and proliferative changes without atypia.

Activity to regulate pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) has started in the states and is trickling up to the federal level, said Ted Okon, MBA, executive director of the Community Oncology Alliance.

Investigators evaluated longitudinal MRI and spectroscopy outcomes and ambulatory function among 180 patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) to establish the utility and reproducibility of magnetic resonance measures of muscle quality at different disease stages.

Disparities in 10-year local recurrence following breast-conserving surgery were seen among women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) treated over a nearly 4-decade span at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, with Black women having the highest rate.

A trio of speakers addressed the importance of social determinants of health (SDOH) in cancer care on day 1 of the 46th annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in the session, “Social Determinants of Health: Impact on Cancer Care.”

The 46th annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium will take place December 5-9, with new and experienced attendees able to choose and learn from a schedule overflowing with the latest developments in breast cancer science and research.

Patients living with myasthenia gravis in Australia were surveyed their demographic information, clinical features of the autoimmune disease, adverse effects from treatment, and quality of life. Outcomes were compared against 2011 data from Australia and 2019 data from the United States.

A new analysis evaluated the economic implications of alopecia on women and their families, with significant out-of-pocket expenses attributed to treatments and measures to conceal the condition.

Data are scarce on the impact that breast cancer among mothers has on their children and their emotional development due to parenting stress and maternal depression.

Education, psychological support, and implementation guidance are the top unmet needs identified by investigators from the United Kingdom concerning gene therapy use for hemophilia.

In this interview with The American Journal of Managed Care®, Katie Queen, MD, addresses the complexity of obesity as a medical condition, pivoting to virtual care while ensuring that patients who lived in a rural location continued to receive adequate care, and the importance of integrating awareness of obesity and chronic disease prevention into local food culture.

The FDA approved delandistrogene moxeparvovec-rokl (Elevidys, Sarepta Therapeutics) in June to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy in ambulatory pediatric patients aged 4 through 5 who have a confirmed DMD gene mutation.

With improved survival becoming more common among individuals who have Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), cardiomyopathy is also increasing in prevalence among this population.

This new study sought to solidify a relationship between certain microbes in intestinal flora and the risk of developing myasthenia gravis, specifically those potentially reducing that risk.

Some of these symptoms include breast puckering, nipple discharge, and retracted nipple.

This retrospective review compared appendicular lean mass (ALM) and ALM index among patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) or Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD).

Investigators propose potential payment models for gene therapies that consider equitable patient access and payer reimbursement.

When patients are undergoing treatment for cancer, clinicians should be aware of the potential to develop myasthenia gravis from immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI), new research stresses, with ongoing surveillance and risk factor identification becoming necessary steps.

Data from 2176 US counties link obesity and higher breast cancer mortality, while also showing varying degrees of association between mortality and access to healthy lifestyle options per social determinants of health (SDOH).

The Enhancing Oncology Model is trying to address a number of the systemic challenges oncology faces without giving practices the tools and resources they need, said Nicolas Ferreyros, managing director of policy, advocacy, and communications, Community Oncology Alliance.