Oncology

The war of words between managed care and pharmaceutical manufacturers, which began when Gilead set the price for its drug to treat the hepatitis C virus (HCV), has taken off in October with the reclassification of a trio of cancer drugs from Genentech. Growth in the "specialty pharma" sector, where prices are rising much faster than drug prices generally, has drawn concern from payers and the umbrella group that represents them, while the trade group that represents drugmakers is pushing back against critics, saying that it faces challenges in bringing life-saving therapies to market.

Recently approved as second-line treatment of metastatic melanoma, following resistance to ipilimumab, the FDA has now designated Keytruda as breakthrough therapy to treat EGFR-mutation and ALK-rearrangement negative NSCLC patients who have pr0gressed following platinum-based therapy.

Radiation exposure due to chest irradiation in women who had childhood Wilms tumor increased their susceptibility to developing breast cancer later in life.

Today, Merck announced that Keytruda has been granted breakthrough therapy designation for treating patients with epidermal growth factor receptor mutation-negative and anaplastic lymphoma kinase rearrangement-negative non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

The gene mutation in RNF43, previously missed in The Cancer Genome Atlas study, was identified in 20% of colorectal and endometrial cancers.

The UCSF study identified a window of 30 to 35 days post surgery, following surgery in patients with glioblastoma multiforme, when delayed radiation significantly improved OS and PFS.

This novel fluorescent imaging technique uses shortwave IR, which has much better tissue penetration than near-IR currently used in imaging.

The study, published in Cell Stem Cell, identified a microRNA-mediated inhibitory pathway that repressed expression of the speech and language gene FOXP2, promoting metastases of breast cancer cells to distant sites.

Horizon BCBS partners with RCCA to improve quality of care for breast cancer patients by evaluating their molecular subtype before administering treatment.

The group, led by Koch Institute director Tyler Jacks, used CRISPR to generate mutant genes that were then packaged into enteroviruses that were used to infect target organs in mice. This is a much faster process than the traditional method that need crossing genetically-engineered mice.

NCCN recommended the diagnostic proteomic test to identify patients who can receive erlotinib as second-line therapy.

Oncologists and palliative care specialists at Duke University Hospital worked together in patient care, resulting in a 23% reduction in patient readmission within a week of discharge.

Everolimus has been added to FDA's Adverse Event Reporting System due to a possible risk of hypertension.

Taiho Oncology, Inc, announced that the FDA granted Fast Track designation for an oral combination anticancer drug under investigation for the treatment of refractory metastatic colorectal cancer.

The paper, published in Nature, has identified a "switch" that can be inhibited to restrict tumor growth.

The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, identified the single nucleotide polymorphism near the coding region of the estrogen receptor ESR1 among Latina women.

Including panobinostat in a regimen that included bortezomib and dexamethasone improved median PFS to 11.9 months as compared with 8.08 months in the control arm.

A study presented at ASCO's Quality Care Symposium in Boston found increased medication adherence to prevent breast cancer recurrence in those availing of the subsidies.

The Decipher test is intended for use in men who have undergone radical prostatectomy and are at a high risk of disease recurrence.

Imbruvica (ibrutinib) is a first-in-class BTK inhibitor with potential for treating blood cancer, indicated for use in MCL and CLL patients.

The non-invasive nature of the test makes it a very attractive alternative to the uncomfortable colonoscopy used to detect colorectal cancer. In a New England Journal of Medicine study of 10,000 patients, the test identified 92% of colorectal cancers in average-risk patients and 42% of polyps.

While the current approved immuno-oncolgy drugs have been approved for melanoma, Roche has also been evaluating their new molecule in triple-negative breast cancer. The results will be presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

The regimen, based on reprogramming the patient's immune T cells to attack the cancer cells, led to the disappearance of cancer in 90 percent of patients, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

After Roche saw 2 product rejects a few weeks back from NICE, based on a value argument, Celgene is in a similar boat with it's multiple myeloma drug pomalidomide.

Fewer than 15% of physicians routinely recommend HPV vaccination to male patients, according to the study published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.