Surabhi Dangi-Garimella, PhD

Disease status, MUD/MRD donor, myeloablative conditioning regimen, GVHD prophylaxis other than tacrolimus/sirolimus, and Medicare and/or Medicaid as payer are significant predictors for cost of care in patient with acute leukemia who undergo allogenic hematopoietic cell transplant (AHCT).

Initiated by the American Board of Internal Medicine, Choosing Wisely® is a campaign that has seen participation by a number of different national medical organizations to promote conversations between clinicians and patients to ensure adequate, evidence-based care.

The current chair of the Federal Trade Commission will like to make a decision on the proposed merger of Walgreens and Rite Aid pharmacies before she leaves office-but the fate of the merger remains unclear.

Outgoing FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, MD, has announced that Richard Pazdur, MD, who was serving as the interim director, will now be heading the Oncology Center of Excellence.

At the 2016 annual meeting, the American Society of Hematology introduced the “Choosing Wisely Champions” to recognize the efforts of practitioners who are working to eliminate costly and potentially harmful overuse of tests and procedures.

During the ASH Practice Partnership lunch, Joseph Alvarnas, MD, from the City of Hope, and editor-in-chief of Evidence-Based Oncologyâ„¢ moderated a panel discussion on the impact of including nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and clinical nurse specialists into hematology care.

The Special Symposium on Quality looked at how health information technology (IT) can be utilized to improve healthcare quality, enhance patient—provider shared decision making, and facilitate efforts in quality research.

A joint session hosted by the American Society of Hematology and the European Hematology Association provided an update on the clinical progress with pluripotent stem cells.

A collaborative study has concluded that genomic assays can be successfully used to identify diagnostic, prognostic, and treatment-relevant alterations and can help guide precision treatment decisions for pediatric brain tumors.

The FDA is giving serious consideration to the economics of the drug or device development process, and to that effect, has released a draft guidance for manufacturers on how and what to communicate with payers and formulary committees.

The improved expansion of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells indicates a deeper clinical response.

A new report released by the American Cancer Society indicates that while the cancer-related death rate was higher among blacks than in whites in 2014, the racial gap could reduce as minority patients increasingly gain access to insurance and subsequent healthcare.

Despite the complexities associated with treating older patients diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL), patients in the RESONATE-2 trial continue to present a favorable response to single-agent ibrutinib at a follow-up of 29 months.

The trial, evaluating the programmed death ligand-1 inhibitor durvalumab, alone or in combination with tremelimumab, versus platinum-based chemotherapy, has refined its endpoints to include overall survival (OS) along with progression-free survival.

At the 58th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting & Exposition, Jan Joseph Melenhorst, PhD, presented results of a study evaluating biomarkers of response to anti-CD19 CAR T-cell treatment in patients diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

Phase 3 results from the LyMa trial have shown that rituximab, after autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT), prolongs event-free survival, progression-free survival, and overall survival (OS) in previously untreated young patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) following ASCT.

Early phase 1 results show that including the cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 inhibitor palbociclib in the treatment plan of patients with mantle cell lymphoma can help overcome resistance to ibrutinib.

In high-risk patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells of defined composition can be administered with an acceptable early toxicity.

An experiment by Park Nicollet Health Services to document personalized pain management goals for patients in oncology clinics lowered documented pain, while physician education on cost information helped reduce treatment costs.

A new study conducted at The University of Texas has found that a majority of federal exchanges do not include National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) hopes that the principles will help ensure access to healthcare and adequate insurance, to improve outcomes among those diagnosed with cancer.

Research published in the Journal of Oncology Practice has identified high treatment burden among Medicare patients with early-stage non—small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

A conglomerate of 69 National Cancer Institute—designated cancer centers has come together to endorse the CDC’s recommendations for HPV vaccination of young children.

Described as a public—private partnership between the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, the NCI Formulary is expected to provide researchers rapid access to anticancer drugs for use in clinical trials.

A screening study conducted over 2 decades in Denmark has raised questions about the need and implications of biennial mammography for women between 50 and 69 years of age.

Researchers from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center have developed a novel method using modified donor T cells to make stem cell transplants both safer and more effective for treating blood cancers

The study observed significant shifts in the treatment of advanced-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), accompanied by only modest gains in survival and total Medicare spending.

Delayed adjuvant chemotherapy, started up to 4 months following resection of non—small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) could still be beneficial to patients, according to a new study published in JAMA Oncology.

CDC has opened up a portal for public comments on its National Tobacco Prevention and Control Public Education Campaign to gather input on the effectiveness of its existing efforts on data collection.

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) within HHS has finalized a rule for all drug manufacturers who are required to make their drugs available to covered care providers under the 340B drug pricing program.