Oncology

This week, the top stories in managed care include President Barack Obama signing the 21st Century Cures Act into law, findings from the CDC that opioid abuse has reduced life expectancy for Americans, and CVS announced a new program to lower costs for patients with diabetes.

Craig Sager, a sideline reporter for CNN and Turner Sports, has died a little over 2 and a half years after being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

At the Community Oncology Alliance (COA) Payer Exchange Summit V, panelists provided insights for successful implementation of payment models in oncology clinics.

Bruce Gould, MD, president and medical director, Northwest Georgia Oncology Center, and president of the Community Oncology Alliance, presented an overview of how cancer care has improved over the years and what the current challenges are.

Implementing precision medicine is a complex undertaking that cannot be accomplished without the use of health IT tools, according to Jonathan Hirsch, founder and president of Syapse. He identified the 4 key functions of healthcare IT that allow Syapse to expand access to precision medicine.

Paxman is seeking approval for using its scalp cooling device as an intervention to prevent chemotherapy-induced alopecia (CIA) in women undergoing chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer.

A survey funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s National Institute on Drug Abuse has found that vaping, cigarette smoking, and use of hookahs among adolescents has declined over the past year.

Chemotherapy-associated alopecia, which drastically changes how a person looks and feels, can significantly impact the patient’s quality of life, over and above the physical exhaustion associated with their treatment. Raising awareness among providers, patients, and their caregivers can help.

A lag in policy changes has resulted in significant variation across palliative care programs for treating advanced illnesses. A recent shift in policy has, however, allowed small-scale testing of community-based palliative care delivery and some innovations in other delivery systems.

The FDA has released an updated safety announcement following a fresh review of data on the type 2 diabetes treatment pioglitazon to confirm that the drug may increase a person’s likelihood of developing bladder cancer.

A study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology has found that step therapy can be cost-effective in patients with cancer who are under psychological duress.

Barry Russo, CEO of The Center for Cancer & Blood Disorders, said that his practice continues to collect quality and claims data from a number of sources, even though it isn’t easy. Russo also said that payers are not particularly interested in participating in a value framework, instead choosing to focus on the oncology care model (OCM).

An exhaustive study conducted by researchers at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research has found that a woman’s social network can significantly affect her chances of survival following breast cancer.

Palliative care is an underutilized and powerful resource in the drive towards value. In the current article, we review published evidence and highlight how Medicare Advantage plans, accountable care organizations, and oncology practices can benefit from concurrent palliative care under value-based payments.

The CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report recommends that Medicaid expansion states should direct more attention to smoking cessation programs to improve access and raise awareness about these programs among beneficiaries and providers.

By using telemedicine and relocating the center of care to where a person lives, we have an opportunity to address more unmet demand for palliative care, while giving more control to the seriously ill to meet their stated needs.

This week, the top stories in managed care included poll results that show growing numbers of Republicans want the Affordable Care Act scaled back instead of repealed, Jardiance received a new indication for patients with type 2 diabetes, and CareMore reported care coordination gaps for seniors.

At the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, researchers announced the creation of a model to identify patients with triple negative breast cancer who are most likely to respond to chemotherapy.

This article examines the integration of palliative care in a community cancer center-an example of how one program integrated palliative care.

A panel of 21 expert clinicians from the field conducted a systematic review of meta-analyses randomized clinical trials, observational studies, and clinical experience, to develop recommendations that have been published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

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.

Representatives from the Beat acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and National Cancer Institute-Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice (NCI-MATCH), which incorporate genomic profiling to assign patients to different treatment arms, provided an insight on trial design and a progress report.

Immuno-oncology will be an important part of cancer care in the future, but probably not the only part, predicted Robert W. Carlson, MD, CEO of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. He also explained how patient advocacy and an enduring healthcare system are essential to the advancement of cancer care.

Older patients diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL) continue to present a favorable response to single-agent ibrutinib, at a follow-up of 29 months, in phase 3 of the RESONATE-2 trial.

Pam Mangat, MS, associate director TAPUR study at the American Society of Clinical Oncology, says that the organization has developed a number of initiatives to educate oncology practitioners on the potential of precision medicine, such as testing guidelines, online courses, a virtual tumor board, and clinical trials.