Oncology

According to the report, sofosbuvir for hepatitis C infections and new cancer drugs were the drivers of the high spending costs, a 7% jump over the previous year.

After 4 years of living with inflammatory breast cancer, Amy Berman, RN, BS, senior program officer at the John A. Hartford Foundation, she still felt fine, which she attributed to her care choices, she explained during her speech at The American Journal of Managed Care's Patient-Centered Oncology Care meeting in Baltimore, Maryland.

The study, published in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, identified race, insurance status, and the treatment center as variables that influenced treatment received by individuals with early-stage lung cancer.

In a paper published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, medical oncologists have delineated their recommendations to improve cancer care and provide better access to quality care for those patients with financial issues and on Medicaid.

The evolving field of precision medicine is very much reliant on diagnostics, Howard K. Kaufman, MD, FACS, chief surgical officer and associate director for clinical science at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, said at The American Journal of Managed Care's Patient-Centered Oncology Care meeting.

An electrical device glued to the scalp can slow cancer growth and prolong survival in people with the deadliest type of brain tumor, researchers reported on Saturday in Miami, at a meeting of the Society for Neuro-Oncology.

The collaboration between the 2 drug giants will prove a big boost to Merck's cancer immunotherapy MSB0010718C, and will also improve it's global oncology business.

At its third annual conference, Patient-Centered Oncology Care 2014, The American Journal of Managed Care addressed new challenges in cancer care: more patients have coverage, but they may be "underinsured" or barred from academic centers. Amid rising drug costs and regulations that threaten community practices, the head of the largest oncology organization outlined a path toward value-based reimbursement.

In a press release based off-of results presented at the Society for Melanoma Research 2014 International Congress in Zurich, Switzerland, BMS announced results from phase 3 of the CheckMate-066 trial.

Following encouraging results from a second phase of a phase 1 trial, the researchers have planned a second phase, to be initiated in January 2015. The vaccine will be administered to glioblastoma patients just before they begin chemotherapy.

Final safety and efficacy results for vismodegib were reported at the Society for Melanoma Research, 2014 International Congress, for the 30-month mark of the ERIVANCE trial. The Congress is meeting November 13-16 in Zurich, Switzerland.

Despite the various treatment advances in melanoma, advanced stages of the disease remain a significant challenge for oncologists. Novel methods of attacking disease vulnerabilities continue to be developed-one such technique is the use of oncolytic viruses to destroy cancer cells. A couple of studies presented an update on preclinical and clinical progress with CAVATAK, formulated using the common cold Coxsackievirus Type A21 (CVA21), during the Society for Melanoma Research, 2014 International Congress in Zurich, Switzerland, November 13—16.

Patients with metastatic melanoma receiving vemurafenib following disease progression showed similar or better overall response to patients without progressive disease, according to findings from an analysis reported at the 11th International Congress of the Society for Melanoma Research on November 15, 2014.

Results of a head-to-head comparison of pembrolizumab and standard chemotherapy in patients with advanced melanoma, including those who had experienced disease progression following ipilimumab, showed superior clinical response with pembrolizumab that was durable.

Much of the news at the Society of Melanoma Research, 2014 International Congress, involves breakthrough therapies for treating metastatic melanoma in its later stages. But the year has brought developments in diagnostics, too. Tools to determine which patients need aggressive treatment and which ones do not are becoming important. As awareness of melanoma grows, more patients arrive at doctors' offices with suspicious skin marks at earlier stages.

During the first plenary session on the second day of the Society for Melanoma Research, 2014 International Congress in Zurich, Switzerland, November 13-16, Targeted Therapies: Genetics and Biology, several researchers presented their thoughts on where they see the future of melanoma research.