Oncology

The BRCAnalysis test will be used in conjunction with Abbvie's novel PARP inhibitor veliparib for the treatment of breast cancer.

Research to be presented this week at the National Cancer Research Institute Cancer Conference has identified the expression of specific serum microRNAs in pediatric solid tumors, which could prove useful for early diagnosis.

CMS released final rules for both the 2015 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and the 2015 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System.

bioTheranostics, Inc's Breast Cancer Index, a genomic test quantifying the risk of breast cancer recurrence and predicting which patients will likely benefit from extended endocrine therapy, will be covered by Medicare.

Google is aiming to diagnose cancers, impending heart attacks or strokes and other diseases, at a much earlier stage than is currently possible.

The guideline, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, recommends against using PSA to screen for prostate cancer, pointing to the high risk of false positives and overdiagnosis.

The retrospective study analyzed SEER data from 2001 through 2009, and found that the annual CAD prevalence among Medicare screening mammograms increased from 3.5% to 79.7%.

The retrospective study, results of which were presented at the 2014 Chicago Multidisciplinary Symposium in Thoracic Oncology, showed that the total diagnostic workup cost for the study sample of Medicare beneficiaries was $38.3 million.

The Danish study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, identified a 70% greater risk of severe depression in the first year after diagnosis.

Phase 2 results from the Checkmate-063 trial found that treatment with the PD-1 inhibitor Nivolumab (Opdivo) resulted in a median OS of 8.2 months in NSCLC patients who had received 2 prior treatments.

The European Medicines Agency granted an orphan status to ATIR, a T-cell immunotherapy-based medicinal product being developed to treat blood cancers.

While the USPSTF recommended against screening for prostate cancer, citing the high rate of false positives, complications from biopsy, and side-effects of aggressive treatment for a sometimes slowly-progressing disease, several medical organizations disagree.

A miniature device can measure a patient's blood for methotrexate, a commonly used but potentially toxic cancer drug.

The toughest topics in cancer care will be on tap November 13-14, 2014, in Baltimore, Maryland, when AJMCLive presents Patient-Centered Oncology Care. If you've followed the discussion among pharmaceutical leaders, oncologists, and payers over access to care, you'll want to join stakeholders to discuss how to ensure patients get what they need while controlling costs.

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.