Latest Conference Articles

Coverage from "Navigating the PBM Landscape: How a Heath Care Economist Sees It," at Patient-Centered Oncology Care 2023.

UnitedHealthcare is incorporating real-world evidence into pathways design and policy formulation, leveraging its members' data to evaluate the impact of different regimens on health resource utilization and costs, explains Lucy Langer, MD, MSHS, national medical director of oncology and genomics at UnitedHealthcare.

The findings suggest patient-reported outcomes—namely fatigue—may be helpful in identifying patients at a higher risk of death and other adverse outcomes but warrant further research.

Abstracts from the 65th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition provided new insight into multiple treatments for patients with multiple myeloma (MM), chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), and follicular lymphoma (FL).

The study’s senior author discusses how the combined mechanisms of action produced benefit in progression-free survival.

One expert said the results have the potential to change the standard of care for some patients with the most common type of liver cancer.

The PD-1 inhibitor is being studied in multiple cancers; FDA is reviewing an application of a combination with rivoceranib in unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma.

Molly Mendenhall, BSN, RN, director of quality and compliance at Oncology Hematology Care, Inc (OHC), discussed a 1-year quality improvement project implemented by OHC to standardize comprehensive biomarker testing in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Treatment with both PD-1 and TIGIT immunotherapy alongside chemotherapy demonstrated improved progression-free (PFS) and overall survival (OS) compared with chemotherapy alone in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).

Jeff McIntyre, MA, of the Global Liver Institute (GLI), discusses the importance of the health care community understanding non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and how to mitigate its global impact.

Especially during shortages, Kirollos S. Hanna, PharmD, BCPS, BCOP, FACCC, director of pharmacy services at Minnesota Oncology, says practices should carve out areas where going to a different therapeutic approach isn't considered off-pathway.

A real-world study found that patients treated with Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitors had lower rates of treatment discontinuation and health care resource utilization compared with other first- and second-line treatment regimens.

Findings from the phase 3 SEQUOIA trial favored zanubrutinib over bendamustine plus rituximab in most biomarker-based subgroups of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL) without deletion of the 17p chromosome.

Margaret Liang, MD, MSHPM, gynecologic oncologist and health services researcher and director, Gynecologic Oncology Fellowship Program, Cedars-Sinai Cancer Center, discusses financial toxicity in cancer care and how institutions can help alleviate the financial burden for patients.

An abstract presented at the 2023 American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition suggests that patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) treated in the era of novel agents might be less likely to experience Richter transformation compared with those treated prior to this era.

Kimberly Westrich, MA, of the National Pharmaceutical Council, explained how she envisions value assessment tools to be used in the US health care system in coming years.

The most-read content from the 2023 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting including the latest findings in ongoing clinical trials, a panel discussion on Medicare oncology payment models, and the importance of alignment between clinicians and payers on clinical pathways.

Andy Blauvelt, MD, MBA, president of Oregon Medical Research Center, recommends new novel topical therapies over topical steroids for patients with atopic dermatitis (AD).

This year’s top content from the annual San Antonino Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) is concentrated in 3 areas: health equity, benign breast disease, and fertility preservation following diagnosis.

Our top coverage from the CHEST Annual Meeting 2023 explored various topics, including strategies to prevent air pollutant exposure and keys to achieving equity in lung cancer screenings.

The 5-year event-free survival EFS) rate was 81.3% with neoadjuvant pembrolizumab/chemotherapy followed by adjuvant pembrolizumab compared with 72.3% in those who received placebo/chemotherapy plus placebo.

Data presented at the 2023 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition highlighted improvements in patient-reported outcomes (PROs) with ciltacabtagene autoleucel (cilta-cel) in multiple myeloma (MM).

The top 5 most-viewed content from the American Society for Preventive Cardiology (ASPC) Congress on Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Prevention included interviews with Stephen Nicholls, PhD, MBBS, and Emelia J. Benjamin, MD, ScM, as well as coverage on multiple areas of cardiovascular medicine.

Key highlights from SLEEP 2023: long COVID-19's impact on sleep, racial disparities in sleep health, idiopathic hypersomnia prevalence, disrupted nighttime sleep's link to narcolepsy in children, and the ease of transitioning to lower-sodium oxybate in narcolepsy treatment while maintaining effectiveness.

The authors concluded that the data support consideration of the oral regimen of decitabine and cedazuridine to reduce the treatment burden associated with intraveous or subcutaneous hypomethylating agents in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS).

From the 2023 Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) Nexus meeting, held in October, expert interviews and insightful updates on the Inflation Reduction Act, gene therapy affordability and access, and the 340B Drug Pricing Program comprise the conference highlights.

Our top conference coverage of 2023 covered a range of topics, including cardiovascular disease, heart failure, breast cancer, and chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

These findings suggest that addressing socioeconomic disparities and inequities that impact access to health care and services may help improve survival outcomes across racial/ethnic groups of male patients with early breast cancer.

Our top coverage from this year’s Revolutionizing Atopic Dermatitis (RAD) conference highlighted the evolving therapy landscape for patients with AD.