Oncology

In light of rising rates of preventive mastectomies among women with breast cancer, a new study looks at whether patient and surgeon factors, including attitudes toward breast conservation, affect the odds of receiving this surgery.

There are a number of challenges with implementing value-based payment models in oncology, but it's an exciting time and offshoots of the Oncology Care Model (OCM) can "revolutionize" cancer care delivery, said Michael Kolodziej, MD, national medical director of managed care strategy at Flatiron Health.

Cabazitaxel can now be used at a dose of 20 mg/m2 every 3 weeks in combination with prednisone in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer who have received a docetaxel-based treatment regimen.

Patients with relapsed follicular lymphoma now have a new treatment option: copanlisib, a kinase inhibitor that was recently approved through the FDA’s accelerated approval process.

The FDA has approved bevacizumab-awwb (Mvasi) as a treatment for multiple cancers. The drug has been approved as a biosimilar to its reference biologic, bevacizumab (Avastin), but it has not been approved as an interchangeable product.

After CMS and Novartis devised an outcomes-based payment approach for the new chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T treatment tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah), a group of representatives are requesting more information on the specifics of the agreement.

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, announced the agency’s progress in streamlining the orphan drug review process and outlined plans to close a loophole currently hindering pediatric drug research.

How much does it cost for a drug maker to develop a new drug? Prior estimates have put this figure as high as $2.7 billion, but a new study indicates that the median cost of development for 10 cancer drugs was actually $648 million-a substantial discrepancy.

A recent survey conducted by Integra Connect has found that a majority of specialty physicians have not yet invested in operational changes that may be essential for their success under value-based care reimbursement models.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has published a set of guidelines and best practices that can help clinicians improve how they communicate with patients receiving cancer therapy and their families.

This webcast will discuss the Oncology Care Model from the perspective of a clinician and a payer.

CheckMate-214 results presented at the European Society of Medical Oncology meeting show improved overall survival in patients with renal cell carcinoma treated with the nivolumab-ipilimumab combination, compared with sunitinib.

Lee N. Newcomer, MD, MHA, senior vice president of oncology and genetics at UnitedHealthcare, discusses off-label communications and how coverage determinations are changing along with the production of new immunotherapy agents.

In recent years, testing for the BRCA1/2 gene mutations has increased among women in both metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas, helping to drastically reduce the gap in testing rates between the groups.

Every week, The American Journal of Managed Care® recaps the top managed care news of the week, and you can now listen to it on our podcast, Managed Care Cast.

Oncologist- as well as patient-initiated conversations on the cost of cancer care led to conversations on cost-reducing strategies 38% of the time, according to a new study published in the Journal of Oncology Practice.

This week, the top managed care stories included more insurers rolling back participation in Affordable Care Act exchanges, while governors testify ways to stabilize the market; the FDA put 3 combination trials of nivolumab on hold; and a study finds very few visits to the emergency department are truly avoidable.

“Is the pen mightier than the scalpel?” A new study aims to answer that question by presenting research on a handheld pen-sized device that can rapidly determine cancer tissue borders during surgery.

Bristol-Myers Squibb announced that the FDA has placed a clinical hold on 3 combination trials evaluating its programmed death-1 inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo) in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.

After presenting research on the use of a patient-reported distress survey to guide the timing of palliative care discussions, lead author Stuart Goldberg, MD, chief scientific officer for Cota, Inc, discussed how it represents a shift in the paradigm of end-of-life conversations.

A single blood draw that combines the detection of DNA and protein markers could be more sensitive to the earlier detection of pancreatic cancer, according to a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Cellectis, a clinical-stage biotechnology company, was asked by the FDA to place a clinical hold on 2 phase 1 trials evaluating its allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor-T (CAR-T) cell treatments following the report of a fatality in the first patient treated in one of the studies.

The FDA has approved the first 2D digital mammography system that lets patients adjust the level of compression applied to their breast during the imaging procedure.

According to a study published in The BMJ, while e-cigarettes can assist smokers to quit, the number of days of e-cigarette use will determine quit attempt and quit success.

The assumption in the United States is that once someone with cancer is cured, done with treatment, and healthy, that they are now okay. However, the reality is that survivors contend with lingering challenges that aren’t visible and make it difficult for them to ask for help or admit they need it.