Latest Conference Articles

In a session at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy Annual Meeting held March 25-28 in San Diego, California, speakers discussed the value-based contract process in Medicaid from both the manufacturer and the payer perspectives.

At the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC)'s 45th Annual Meeting & Cancer Center Business Summit, Ali McBride, PharmD, MS, BCPS, BCOP, clinical coordinator of hematology/oncology in the Department of Pharmacy at The University of Arizona Cancer Center and president of ACCC, discussed the role of biosimilars in oncology and how familiar oncologists and their teams are with them.

Biomarker testing will start to evolve to look more at combination therapies, said Jarushka Naidoo, MB BCh, of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins.

The move to value-based care has increased the use of palliative care, and new research has found that conversations about end-of-life care should be happening earlier, said Toby C. Campbell, MD, MSCI, of the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center.

A presentation Saturday at the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida, outlined several key updates for treatment in ovarian cancer based on new studies and approvals for poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors and bevacizumab.

While no one country has perfected use of digital health, there are some takeaways from what other countries are doing successfully, according to John D. Halamka, MD, MS, chief information officer, Beth Israel Deaconess Health System.

We're getting better at identifying which patients with ovarian cancer will respond to poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors, but we have a long way to go, said David M. O'Malley, MD, professor of medicine, Department of Gynecology, and director of Gynecologic Oncology Clinical Research at the James Cancer Center, Ohio State University.

Although there is still a need for more education around the use of biosimilars in cancer, it seems oncologists have become more knowledgeable in the past few years, said Gary H. Lyman, MD, MPH, of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.

On the last day of the 2019 National Comprehensive Cancer Network Annual Conference, a thoracic oncologist and palliative care physician shared strategies and specific phrases for guiding end-of-life discussions that have been developed, tested, and studied at the University of Wisconsin.

The proposals that will have the biggest impact on community oncology and cancer care delivery in general are those that are still pending, explained Ben Jones, vice president, Government Relations & Public Policy, McKesson Specialty Health.

As more cancer survivors live longer, the challenges increase for those responsible for coordinating care among primary care providers, specialists, and oncologists. The concept of survivorship continues to evolve to include life long after cancer treatment, according to updated guidelines from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.

Germline testing at diagnosis, along with tumor testing, have the potential to identify candidates for investigational poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors, and updated guidelines call for their expanded use.

CancerIQ is reducing barriers that make it difficult to utilize genetic testing to predict or pre-empt a patient’s cancer diagnosis, explained Feyi Olopade Ayodele, MBA, chief executive officer at CancerIQ.

More and more, care is moving into the home with new tools and technologies that can monitor patients, but this raises the question of how to handle this new data, said John D. Halamka, MD, MS, of Beth Israel Deaconess Health System.

Multigene testing provides a lot of information that providers have to be familiar with in order to adequately explain it to their patients, said John H. Ward, MD, Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah.

CMS’ proposal that patients be enrolled in a clinical trial or registry to get Medicare coverage for chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies will help improve access, for the most part, but there is the risk that some organizations will choose not to offer this treatment, said John W. Sweetenham, MD, of Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah.

Guideline updates discussed Thursday at the 2019 National Comprehensive Cancer Network Annual Conference reflect recent practice-changing clinical trials involving pembrolizumab and chemotherapy.

A diverse panel of representatives from different practice models provided insights into what has worked for them and what has not in trying to improve cancer care. The discussion took place in Washington, DC, at the Association of Community Cancer Centers

A panel during the opening day of the 2019 National Comprehensive Cancer Network Annual Conference examined the recent process for National Coverage Determination for chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy and what it means for the future of innovative treatments.

Healthcare futurist Joe Flower discusses the need to look at the bigger picture when trying to change the way we deliver cancer care.

Healthcare futurist Joe Flower opened up the Association of Community Cancer Centers 45th Annual Meeting and Cancer Center Business Summit, held March 20-22 in Washington, DC, with a vision of a healthcare system that provides better quality care at a lower cost that is more easily accessible for all stakeholders.

While there is currently a presence of technology in healthcare, the future holds much more promise, said Allen Lichter, MD, FASCO, senior partner of TRG Healthcare.

Value-based insurance design (VBID) aligns patient cost sharing with the value of clinical services, so that patients pay less for high-value services and more for unnecessary, low-value services. While there has been increased interest in VBID, with CMS expanding the VBID demonstration in Medicare Advantage to all 50 states, the situation on the state exchanges is different: The plan has to be cost neutral, so in order to remove cost sharing for high-value services, cost sharing has to increase for other, low-value services.

The INFINITY trial, presented at the 68th Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology, tracked hypertension, brain lesions, and gait in groups of older seniors who had their systolic blood pressure managed to either 130 mm Hg or 145 mm Hg. Results showed significant differences in brain lesions between the 2 groups after 3 years.

New results presented at the American College of Cardiology's 68th Annual Scientific Session find a high-dose fish oil pill reduced the risk for first and future cardiovascular events among patients taking statins by 30%. The early results grabbed headlines last fall in part because researchers aren't entirely sure how the capsule works.

New findings show reduced hospitalizations for a wide group of patients with heart failure. For high-risk patients with reduced ejection fraction, the drug appears to cut deaths, but more studies will answer these questions.

More than a decade after an FDA mandate for cardiovascular outcomes trials, cardiologists say insights gained on how 2 new drug classes affect heart failure in diabetes should be used to prevent complications. Several sessions at the 68th Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology addressed this topic.

The AUGUSTUS trial was designed to guide clinicians in treating patients with complex heart problems who are typically left out of other clinical trials. Results were presented Sunday at the 68th Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology, held in New Orleans, Louisiana.