Hematology

This week in managed care, an analysis found the penalty for being uninsured will exceed the cost of insurance for most Americans in 2016, thousands met for the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology, and Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield's OMNIA plan gets good news and bad news in New Jersey.

In order to reign in high costs of care in oncology, the healthcare community needs to be able to define value better, according to Alex Bastian, MBA, senior vice president at GfK.

There are many ways patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia can ensure they are active participants in their own treatment, according to Giora Sharf, co-founder of the CML Advocates Network.

Although guidelines from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and recommendations from the European LeukemiaNet do not identify a failure time point for major molecular response in patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia, a study at the 56th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology was able to pinpoint when treatment is not working.

A poster session on the second day of the 56th annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology, held December 6-9, San Francisco, was dedicated to trials evaluating therapeutic options in chronic myelogenous leukemia. Data presented included safety, efficacy, managing comorbidities, and biological differences that drive response to therapy.

Perceptions of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) and how to live with it are very different for patients and physicians, and a strong dialogue is needed to overcome the disparity, according to Jan Geissler, co-founder of the CML Advocates Network.

Although nilotinib as a first-line therapy for chronic myelogenous leukemia is a more effective treatment than imatinib, nilotinib's side effects are too much for patients.

The plenary session on the second day of the 56th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology, held December 6-9 in San Francisco, saw the best presentations, selected by the Program Committee, from among the thousands of scientific abstracts that were accepted for the meeting. These talks included a JAK/STAT-mediated thrombopoietin regulation by the Ashwell-Morell receptor, lenalidomide-mediated casein kinase regulation in myelodysplastic syndrome, and the results of the SORAML trial in acute myeloid leukemia.

While medical oncologists, drug developers, and research scientists presented their research findings and novel treatment options in hematological cancers, a special session in the afternoon on the first day of the 56th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), held December 6 to 9 in San Francisco, addressed the aspect of cost of care and the increasing financial burden faced by the cancer patient.

The American Journal of Managed Care convened a panel of experts to discuss advances and challenges in treating multiple myeloma, which has seen longer survival rates since the arrival of bortezomib and thalidomide.

BMS announced in a press release the breakthrough designation received by it's PD-1 inhibitor antibody, nivolumab, for treating Hodgkin's lymphoma.

One billion dollars. That can be the list price for bringing a new cancer-fighting agent from preclinical design through approval by the US Food and Drug Administration, according to Michael R. Grever, MD, of the Ohio State University.

Treating lymphoma today starts with an understanding of what is being treated, and the revolution in genetic profiling lets clinicians do that with more precision than ever.

Progress in treating multiple myeloma, or cancer of the plasma cells in bone marrow, has advanced significantly over the past decade. Today, questions about the disease often involve finding a treatment that balances the goal of putting a patient into remission especially if stem cell transplantation is a possibility against the toxicity of the treatment itself.

With grants from government sources looking less certain, partnerships between academic research center and pharmaceutical companies are more important than ever to keep breakthrough hematology therapies in the pipeline, said Burt Adelman, MD, a hematologist who serves as executive vice president and chief medical officer for Dyax Inc.

On July 8, 2012, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released two major Medicare proposed rules impacting payment for physician and hospital outpatient services in 2014. ASH will submit comments to CMS on the proposed rules by the September 6 deadline and would like to incorporate feedback from the Society's practice-based members.

At the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology, John Radford, MD, reported the results of the United Kingdom RAPID trial, in which PET-directed therapy provided an opportunity to avoid involved field radiotherapy, the current standard of care following abbreviated chemotherapy in early stage Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Vorinostat added to standard chemotherapy before, during, and after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation reduced the cumulative incidence of graft-versus-host disease in a phase I/II trial reported at the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

An investigational, weekly, oral proteosome inhibitor called MLN9708 achieved excellent response rates when combined with lenalidomide and dexamethasone as up-front treatment of newly diagnosed patients with multiple myeloma, according to results of a phase II trial presented at the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

Ibrutinib, an investigational Bruton's tyrosine kinase inhibitor, achieved excellent results in clinical trials of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) presented at the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

Extended anticoagulation with fixed doses of the oral Factor Xa inhibitor apixaban significantly reduced the incidence of symptomatic recurrent venous thromboembolism (VTE) or death without increasing the risk of major bleeding in patients with VTE who had already completed up to 12 months of anticoagulation.