Oncology

Diets lacking essential nutrients can exacerbate chronic conditions in survivors of childhood cancer and dietary interventions might be necessary to reduce morbidities in this population.

Seventy Americans and 9 international members were elected to the National Academy of Medicine this week.

Atezolizumab, an inhibitor of the programmed death ligand-1 protein, has been approved for the treatment of patients with non-small cell lung cancer who failed to respond to treatment with platinum-based chemotherapy.

As we enter a time of extraordinary advances in cancer care, some of the optimism over these advances has been tem­pered by the growing realization of the challenges of delivering these cancer care solutions.

Vice President Joe Biden today presented the Cancer Moonshot report to President Barack Obama and the nation, delineating an actionable plan to transform cancer research and care delivery.

The National Cancer Institute's Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences created the Healthcare Delivery Research Program in January 2015, recognizing the need for empirical evidence to address cancer care challenges.

Data released by the CDC today indicate that while breast cancer deaths are on the decline, black women still have worse outcomes than white women. The report also noted disparate trends in breast cancer incidence among different races and age groups.

This week, the top stories in managed care included HHS releasing the final rule for the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, a commentary on the downside of drug coupons, and the World Health Organization called on countries to enact a soda tax.

Radiomic combines imaging and computational technologies and can identify patients with recurrent glioblastoma who may benefit from using angiogenesis inhibitors.

A survey by Avalere Health found that only 19% of drug makers publicly post policies about their compassionate use programs.

What we're reading, October 12, 2016: a US senator calls for a limit to prescription fentanyl; healthcare costs aren't skyrocketing, despite claims; IBM's Watson will identify cancer treatment and clinical trials for IBM employees.

A retrospective study in breast cancer patients suggests that patients can lower their out-of-pocket costs by speaking with their oncologist about alternate treatments that may be equally effective and understanding the drug coverage policy of their insurance plan.

Innovation in oncology treatments has reduced the mortality rate for cancer, but it comes at a price. At the 5th Annual Patient-Centered Oncology Care, experts will discuss cost-sharing models, as well as updates in cancer care treatment, such as precision medicine and immuno-oncology.

Researchers at the University of Chicago have developed a clinically relevant patient-centered tool that can measure a patient’s risk for financial stress.

Granulocyte-colony stimulating factors (G-CSFs) reduce the risk of febrile neutropenia in patients with cancer. This study evaluates the clinical and nonclinical value associated with G-CSFs.

While nivolumab failed to surpass the outcomes of chemotherapy as first-line treatment in programmed death ligand-1—expressing patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), pembrolizumab bettered chemotherapy in improving survival in a similar cohort.

A retrospective analysis has found that longer term adjuvant treatment with tamoxifen significantly decreases the risk of contralateral breast cancer.

This week, the top managed care stories included conference coverage from the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy's 2016 Nexus, Bill Clinton courted controversy when discussing the Affordable Care Act, and research finds fear of a job loss can increase the risk of diabetes.

HHS has been banned from using a patient identifier but several organizations, including national payers, providers, and prescription drug networks, want this reversed.

A study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology found an increased rate of resection and a reduction in the probability of emergent resection for colorectal cancer (CRC) as a result of insurance expansion in Massachusetts.

According to the 2016 Community Oncology Practice Impact Report, about 15 community practices in the United States have either closed or were acquired, each month since 2008.

A draft guidance issued by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) rejected use of Merck's programmed death-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in patients diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

At the Institute for Clinical Immuno-Oncology National Conference, a panel of care providers presented institutional experiences with immunotherapy, and how a collaborative care approach helped the process.

Precision Promise, the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN)'s precision medicine trial, seeks to transform outcomes for pancreatic cancer patients with the goal set to double survival by 2020.

Perennial favorite, Aimee Tharaldson, PharmD, senior clinical consultant of emerging therapeutics at Express Scripts, opened the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy 2016 Nexus, October 3, 2016, in National Harbor, Maryland, with a discussion of specialty pharmaceutical drugs in the pipeline.