The AJMC® Precision Medicine in Oncology compendium is a comprehensive resource for clinical news and expert insights for molecular profiling of tumors.
Reimbursement for CAR-T therapy has progressed to where commercially insured patients obtain coverage regularly, but issues remain for patients with Medicare, said John Sweetenham, MD, professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center and the Associate Director for Clinical Affairs at UTSW’s Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center.
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Dr John Sweetenham Outlines the Effect of Current Policies on the Implementation of CAR T Therapy
November 29th 2019There are a number of policy changes that can drive change within the implementation of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, but further innovation is warranted to improve access, said John Sweetenham, MD, professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center and the Associate Director for Clinical Affairs at UTSW’s Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center.
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Patients Need More Education Regarding the Purpose of Precision Medicine Trials
November 20th 2019Precision medicine may offer new hope to children with high-risk cancer, but only if families and healthcare professionals are fully educated on the benefits and limitations of precision medicine trials, according to a study in Journal of Clinical Oncology.
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RNA Sequencing May Be Able to Help Target Therapies for Pediatric Cancers
November 16th 2019Genomic profiling of tumors has become standard in oncology, but tumors in children often do not have actionable DNA aberrations, requiring another way to effectively target treatment for these patients. A study in JAMA Network Open found that RNA sequencing from pediatric and young adult patients may be a feasible approach.
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MSK-IMPACT AI Study Yields New Findings to Diagnose Tumor Types of Unknown Origin
November 14th 2019A team of researchers led by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Thursday published work describing how they used machine learning, a form of artificial intelligence (AI), to predict tumor type from targeted DNA sequence data to predict tissue of origin, in a finding that may have implications to improve diagnostic and clinical care.
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The Fast Pace of CAR T-Cell Innovation Caused an Array of Challenges in Treatment
November 10th 2019The evidence shows that chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies are effective, but the price tags on these treatments are high and have raised concerns about how many patients will get treated. During a discussion at The American Journal of Managed Care®’s Patient-Centered Oncology Care® meeting, held Friday in Philadelphia, panelists outlined the efficacy of the 2 FDA-approved therapies, Medicare reimbursement for CAR T-cell therapies, and the pace of innovation in healthcare.
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Broad Population Genetic Screening Still Faces Implementation Challenges
November 1st 2019Broad population-based genomic screening has the potential to improve patient care by detecting genetic causes of disease before they occur; however, the economics behind this approach have not fully been validated, according to a session on the clinical and economic utility of whole-genome sequencing at the AMCP Nexus 2019 meeting.
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Clinicians Hear More Questions as Patient Awareness of Oncology Genetic Testing Grows
October 24th 2019With increasing awareness of genetic testing and advancements in precision medicine, more patients are seeking counsel from clinicians about what steps they should take if mutations are found. This requires physicians to become more informed, and a recent article discusses the hypothetical case of an Ashkenazi Jewish woman with breast cancer.
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CDK4/6 Inhibitors Significantly Improved OS in Women With Advanced Breast Cancer, Studies Show
October 23rd 2019Pairing a cyclin-dependent kinase 4 and 6 (CDK4/6) inhibitor with fulvestrant significantly improved overall survival (OS) for women with hormone receptor (HR)-positive, human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2)-negative advanced breast cancer, according to 2 abstracts presented at the European Society of Medical Oncology 2019 Congress.
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Researchers Describe Use of 8-Color Flow Cytometry to Determine Level of Response to MM Therapy
October 19th 2019A recent study described the use of multiparameter flow cytometry to detect minimal residual disease, with an 8-color flow cytometric method with a 105 sensitivity, using monoclonal antibodies in dried formulation.
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Educational Resources Needed to Promote MRD Testing for Adults With ALL at Community Practices
October 17th 2019While measurement of minimal residual disease (MRD) at the end of induction is an important prognostic factor in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), there is a gap in education among community oncology providers, according to an abstract presented at the Society of Hematologic Oncology 2019 Annual Meeting.
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Debating the Use of MRD Testing for Treatment Decision Making
October 7th 2019Although minimal residual disease (MRD) is increasingly being used to predict treatment outcomes and as a surrogate marker of progression-free survival, there remains controversy over whether it is ready to be used in treatment decision making.
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Nina Chavez on How CAR T, Other Expensive Therapies Create Reimbursement Challenges
October 5th 2019Nina Chavez, MBA, FACMPE, chief operating officer, New Mexico Oncology Hematology Consultants, Ltd., explains how expensive therapies like chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy are creating reimbursement challenges.
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Study: All Women With Breast Cancer, Regardless of Family History, Should Undergo Genetic Testing
October 4th 2019While current guidelines recommend that only women with breast cancer who have a family history or who meet clinical criteria undergo genetic testing, a new cost-effectiveness analysis suggests that genetic testing should be expanded to all women with breast cancer.
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As Relevance of MRD Testing Grows, So Does Access
September 25th 2019As minimal residual disease (MRD) and other measures to detect cancer burden are increasingly used to predict outcomes and direct future treatment decisions, Amgen has chosen to partner with Adaptive Biotechnologies to use the clonoSEQ product to assess MRD across multiple drug development programs.
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Dr Lee Schwartzberg Reacts to USPSTF's BRCA Screening Recommendation Update
September 25th 2019Lee Schwartzberg, MD, FACP, executive director, West Cancer Center, offers his view on the US Preventive Services Task Force's (USPSTF's) updated recommendation for risk assessment, genetic counseling, and genetic testing for BRCA-related cancer.
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Key Opinion Leaders Underscore Importance of MRD Testing in Multiple Myeloma
September 13th 2019The clinical significance of minimal residual disease (MRD) status was recently highlighted in The American Journal of Managed Care®’s Peer Exchange series “A Review of the Treatment for Multiple Myeloma.” During the series, key opinion leaders discussed the clinical implications and significance of MRD testing in patients with multiple myeloma.
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All Patients With Metastatic Breast Cancer Should Undergo Germline Testing, Study Finds
September 11th 2019All patients with metastatic breast cancer should undergo genetic testing based on the prevalence of P/LP variants in patients with metastatic breast cancer, which can have therapeutic implications.
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Dr John Fox Emphasizes the Importance of Genetic Counseling Before, After Genetic Testing
September 3rd 2019Offering patients genetic counseling before and after they receive genetic testing is crucial for making sure they understand what the results mean, explained John Fox, MD, MHA, vice president of Clinical Transformation at Spectrum Health.
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Dr Ajai Chari Explains MGUS and How to Discuss It With Patients
August 31st 2019Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance is a diagnosis of exclusion, but even once it has been identified, patients should not obsess over this precancerous condition, said Ajai Chari, MD, associate professor of medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology, Mount Sinai Hospital.
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Researchers Test Approach to Remove Protective Tumor Barrier, Making Immunotherapies More Effective
August 30th 2019While the results are early, if further research proves the approach effective, it could help boost the impact of treatments like chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, which to date hasn’t had much luck in solid tumors.
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