Oncology

If the burden of cost sharing no longer fell on cancer patients, they would be more likely to access care and maintain treatment as prescribed, leading to improved outcomes, according to Samantha Watson, founder and CEO of The Samfund. When faced with high copays, patients are more likely to skip appointments or take only half of their prescribed medications.

Do newer forms of radiation treatments surpass standard radiation in prostate cancer?

According to a new clinical trial, circulating tumor cells can serve as a biomarker that alerts clinicians to the recurrence of non-small cell lung cancer months before it is detected by CT scans.

The use of biomarkers in immunotherapy has some technical and biological limitations, and is complicated further by the qualitative aspect of cancer treatment, said David Fabrizio, of Foundation Medicine, Inc. A genomic-based solution could help develop more unified quantitative approaches.

Oncology physicians and nurses need to listen to their patients’ needs and expectations to determine the right way to present information on cancer treatments, including immuno-oncology, according to Debra L. Madden, cancer research advocate and patient representative.

A preview of some of the discussions at the 22nd Annual Conference of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN).

This week, the top managed care stories included the Congressional Budget Office releasing its rating of the GOP's health plan, the Senate voted to confirm Seema Verma for CMS administrator, and Scott Gottlieb, MD, was nominated to lead the FDA.

The White House budget “blueprint” for 2018, which was released today, has recommended substantial cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

A new study has found that an educational program can help ease worries associated with palliative care, and make cancer patients more likely to use it if referred.

Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) received an accelerated approval for adult and pediatric patients with refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma or those who have relapsed after at least 3 lines of therapy.

A new economic study has found that cancer types that were the focus of articles receiving public or private research support had fewer hospitalizations and lower mortality.

Ken Tarkoff, formerly at RelayHealth, is joining Syapse as its new CEO.

New research published in Nature Medicine has identified a broader population of individuals with breast cancer who can have therapeutic sensitivity to PARP inhibitors.

The FDA has approved Novartis’ ribociclib (Kisqali) for treatment of postmenopausal women with hormone receptor positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 negative (HR+/HER2-) advanced or metastatic breast cancer.

A new study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, has confirmed that mammographic density change following estrogen and progestin treatment increases the risk of breast cancer.

A recent study in Health Affairs assessed cost and utilization outcomes for 3 innovative care models for Medicare beneficiaries with cancer: oncology medical homes, patient navigator programs, and palliative care initiatives.

The cost of oncology care has increased significantly in recent years, leading employers to worry about how they can provide consistent benefits for employees with cancer and their family members, according to Karen van Caulil, PhD, president and CEO of the Florida Health Care Coalition.

Years of experience as an oncology nurse practitioner have underscored the importance of evidence-based resources for both patients and clinicians, says Carrie Stricker, PhD, RN, AOCN, chief clinical officer and co-founder of Carevive.

When discussing value in oncology, the outcomes that matter are those that are important to the patient, said Stuart Goldberg, MD, chief medical officer, Cancer Outcomes Tracking and Analysis, John Theurer Cancer Center. He also discussed how the use of data to stratify patients is important for providing value-based cancer care.

The selective BCR-ABL1 kinase inhibitor imatinib mesylate (Gleevec) has been found to be safe and effective following almost 11 years of follow-up in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia.

This week, the top managed care news included a bill from House Republicans to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, a new program at Walgreens to train pharmacists on an advanced cancer-care curriculum, and findings that health coaching helps the neediest patients most.

A study evaluating patients diagnosed with thyroid cancer who refused a clinical intervention for fear of being overdiagnosed has reported that the individuals feel isolated and anxious.

A new study from the MD Anderson Cancer Center has identified factors that influence cancer clinical trial accrual rates.

A review of research on the effectiveness of several treatments for cancer-related fatigue determined that exercise and psychological interventions resulted in more significant improvements than pharmaceutical regimens.

A pilot study conducted at a safety net hospital has armed researchers with a new educational tool: a digital app to persuade parents to vaccinate their adolescent against the human papilloma virus (HPV).