Latest Conference Articles

Phase 3 results from the LyMa trial show that rituximab maintenance therapy after autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) prolongs event-free survival, progression-free survival, and overall survival (OS) in previously untreated young patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).

Innovative health IT tools like those developed by Carevive help maximize the balance between patient self-management and care team engagement, which is especially important in the era of value-based care, according to Carrie Stricker, PhD, RN, AOCN, chief clinical officer and co-founder of Carevive.

A cancer patient’s comorbid diseases have important implications for setting goals and selecting treatment, said Joseph Alvarnas, MD, of the City of Hope and editor-in-chief of Evidence-Based Oncology. Clinicians must keep comorbidities in mind as they base oncology care upon that person as an individual.

Early phase 1 results show that including the cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 inhibitor palbociclib in the treatment of patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) can help overcome resistance to ibrutinib.

Distinct genetic signatures can help distinguish responders from nonresponders of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell treatment in patients diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

Surrogate endpoints, or endpoints other than overall survival, will help accelerate drug discovery and provide additional solutions for patients, according to David Fabrizio, of Foundation Medicine, Inc. However, alternate endpoints are not without their drawbacks.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells have been dramatically effective in treating B-cell cancers, according to David L. Porter, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. He also identified the use of CAR T-cells for treating solid tumors as a research area that will see more development in the coming years.

The PIONEER AF-PCI trial studied bleeding in patients with atrial fibrillation undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention with 3 different treatments. The study found that a rivaroxaban (Xarelto)-based strategy had a significant reduction of bleeding complications, explained Roxana Mehran, MD, FACC, FACP, professor of medicine and director of Interventional Cardiovascular Research and Clinical Trials at the Zena and Michael A. Weiner Cardiovascular Institute at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Treat-to-target has largely become the preferred method for physicians treating patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Gerd Burmester, MD, of Charité — Universitätsmedizin Berlin, discussed the results of a randomized, double-blind monotherapy study comparing the safety and efficacy of sarilumab with adalimumab in patients who cannot tolerate methotrexate.

At the Annual Meeting of the American College of Rheumatology in Washington, DC, several experts presented their progress in harnessing technology to help teenagers and young adults manage their juvenile arthritis.

During a session at the Annual Meeting of the American College of Rheumatology, Jeffrey Curtis, MD, discussed the ways in which patients with rheumatoid arthritis who demonstrate a less-than-adequate response to a tumor necrosis factor inhibitor can be treated with another disease-modifying antirheumatic drug.

A study inspired by a patient who could not afford his heart medication shows that there was no pattern to price variability for a common regimen to treat heart failure, which could contribute to poor adherence.

The study now includes 494 patients, and will be complete when 503 are enrolled. Of the participants, 60% required anticoagulant reversal to undergo surgery.

During a session at the Annual Meeting of the American College of Rheumatology, John D. Isaacs, MD, PhD, FRCP, not only reviewed regulatory perspectives as biosimilars enter the market, but conveyed the importance of crafting antibodies to our own purposes.

For some time, cardiologists have wondered whether there was anything to be gained by pushing LDL or "bad" cholesterol to very low levels.

David Hafler, MD, chairman of the Department of Neurology at the Yale School of Medicine, spoke of exciting times in the field of genome-wide association study-specifically speaking to neurology, genetics, the environment, and the autoimmune response.

A study of a pair of large databases shows a strong link between obesity and heart failure.

The study finds one-quarter of the patients stop taking anticoagulants within 3 months and nearly three-quarters have stopped after 2.25 years.

The goal of medicine is function and health. Clinicians who marry technical skills with humanities can see their patients and themselves in the larger context of family, society, history, politics, and economics.

Presenters noted that this was an important but unusual trial, because it examined drugs not in isolation but how they are used in combination.

Patients who live with rheumatoid arthritis do not die from swollen joints but face twice the risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke.

Be careful what you wish for:  SGR and FFS will be models of the past; the success of the APM and MIPS will rely on compensation, collaboration and participation; and, to date, much remains to be done in the development of quality-based payment reform under MACRA. 

The results point to the need for more study on the effects of long-duration blood pressure treatment to prevent cognitive decline, especially in the highest risk patients.

The results from a wide-ranging public health effort in Howard County, Maryland, show a decline in sugary beverage consumption nearly on par with early results from Berkeley, California, which passed the nation's first soda tax.

A review of data of patients with cardiomyopathy found that those who had used marijuana were more likely to be younger males with fewer pre-existing cardiovascular risk factors.

Telehealth broadly is about creating care connections across boundaries, care that encourages patients’ independence, prevention and wellness; and care that can be leveraged for needed interventions. If we get telehealth right we can reduce impact of what we know is a growing health workforce shortage and concurrently create a healthier, more engaged patient base.

The 12-biomarker test is gaining acceptance among rheumatologists and was recently added to a clinical guideline.

At the Payer Exchange Summit V, sponsored by the Community Oncology Alliance, oncologists and payers came together to discuss the role of collaboration and data sharing for the successful implementation of the Oncology Care Model.