Latest Conference Articles

What has really changed in the shift to precision medicine is that it adds a layer of data to each step we go through with the patient, explained James Lin Chen, MD, Ohio State University, and chair of ASCO CancerLinQ Oncology Informatics Task Force.

If we’ve got data moving, and if we’re analyzing it in smart ways in real time, we should be able to detect problems within our healthcare system much more rapidly than we have been able to in the past, explained Harlan Krumholz, MD, SM, the Harold H. Hines Jr professor, Medicine and Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale School of Medicine, and director, Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation, Yale-New Haven Hospital.

Cancer patients are agreeing to treatment plans lacking a fundamental understanding of the impacts on their finances, explained Ellen Miller Sonet, MBA, JD, chief strategy and policy officer, CancerCare.

While there isn’t a lot of hard science out yet, there have been benefits seen for both patients and practices when integrated cancer care teams are used, Thomas Asfeldt, MBA, RN, director of Outpatient Cancer Services at Sanford Cancer Center.

Michael Thompson, MD, PhD, FASCO, Aurora Advanced Healthcare, outlines novel therapies being used in the treatment of hematologic malignancies and identified biomarkers for deciding on a treatment approach.

Jamie Bakkum-Gamez, MD, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology and Gynecologic oncologist at Mayo Clinic, talks about the importance of a patient receiving genetic counseling after an ovarian cancer diagnosis.

Curtis Lowery, MD, chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and director of the Center for Distance Health, discusses how his practices utilizes technology to benefit patients.

Leonard Saltz, MD, executive director of Clinical Value and Sustainability, head of Colorectal Oncology Section, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the role next-generation sequencing currently plays in advancing precision medicine.

Sally Okun, RN, MMHS, vice president, Policy and Ethics, PatientsLikeMe, discusses how digital health improvements help include the patient voice in healthcare and how the United States' use of real-world evidence compares with how it's used in other countries.

While physicians are becoming more aware of the financial hardships facing patients, they are mostly still focused on insurance, said oncology financial navigator Clara Lambert, BBA, OPN-CG, chair of the ACCC Financial Advocacy Network Advisory Committee.

Mark Fleury, PhD, MS, principal of Policy Development and Emerging Science at the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), has highlighted the advocacy efforts the organization was involved in from the local level to the federal level.

Somali Burgess, PhD, senior director, Xcenda, discusses how patient-reported outcomes (PROs) help advance patient care and challenges with translating PROs into clinical and pharmaceutical decisions.

When creating a care coordination model, it is important to understand what the model is trying to achieve and what everyone’s roles are in the model, explained Barbara Tofani, RN, MSN, NEA-BC, administrative director of the Hunterdon Regional Cancer Center.

Burnout can impact how well a clinician connects with patients and makes medical decision, and programs that successfully address burnout start with leadership, said Kathleen Blake, MD, MPH, vice president for Performance Improvement at the American Medical Association.

Financial hardship doesn’t mean the same thing for anybody, and accurately predicting who will experience financial toxicity is challenging, said Yousuf Zafar, MD, MHS, of the Duke Cancer Institute and a member of the Association of Community Cancer Centers Financial Advocacy Network Advisory Committee.

At the 2018 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting, a study conducted in France revealed the impact of electronic patient-reported outcomes (PROs) on survival among patients being treated for lung cancer. The study was presented by Fabrice Denis, MD, PhD, radiation oncologist at Institut Inter-regional de Cancérologie Jean Bernard, Le Mans, France.

Technology has been fantastic for connecting multidisciplinary teams and providing truly integrated care, explained Thomas Asfeldt, MBA, RN, director of Outpatient Cancer Services at Sanford Cancer Center.

During a session at the 2018 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting, June 1-5, in Chicago, Illinois, panelists discussed the financial burdens of cancer diagnosis and treatment, the barriers facing clinicians and patients in discussing these financial burdens, and solutions that can be implemented to alleviate the burden.

As the opioid epidemic persists in the United States, there are growing questions and concerns over how to manage cancer-related pain and aberrant opioid use. During a session at the 2018 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting, Egidio Del Fabbro, MD, Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center, discussed several management strategies that can be used to address these concerns.

It’s really important to take advantage of the data in an electronic health record (EHR) system, but sometimes people don’t know what information is being captured behind the scenes, said Pamela Tobias, MS, RHIA, CHDA, administrator of oncology services at Lehigh Valley Health Network.

James Hamrick, MD, MPH, Kaiser Permanente and Flatiron Health, discusses the importance of real-world data and how it augments traditional clinical trial data.

Researchers are examining combination therapies with immunotherapy, with and without chemotherapy.

FDA has fast-tracked the Biologics License Application for cemiplimab, with a decision expected October 28, 2018.

Regeneron's Matthew Fury, MD, said the decision to move immediately to a phase 3 trial came after 2 of 3 patients in a phase 1 trial showed durable responses.

A late-breaking abstract presented on Sunday at the 2018 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting confirmed that pembrolizumab significantly improved the primary endpoint of overall survival over platinum-based chemotherapy in treatment-naïve advanced/metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The effect, the authors found, was agnostic of PD-L1 expression, meaning the monoclonal antibody was effective for tumors expressing PD-L1 at ≥50%, ≥20%, and ≥1%.

Kimberly Lenz, PharmD, clinical pharmacy manager, MassHealth/Office of Clinical Affairs, University of Massachusetts Medical School discusses initiatives introduced to implement appropriate opioid prescribing, best practices for enforcing appropriate prescribing, and if current opioid restrictions have reduced utilization.

Trial Assigning IndividuaLized Options for Treatment (Rx), or TAILORx, successfully confirmed the benefit of endocrine therapy alone in patients with early-stage breast cancer who have an Oncotype DX Breast Recurrence Score of 11 to 25.

In the era of real-world data and its growing role in oncology, panelists discussed collecting and using this information in combination with clinical trials to inform evidence-based care during a session at the 2018 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting.