Oncology

A patient advocate underscores the need for awareness and self-advocacy among cancer patients by highlighting her own experience as a survivor, who experienced delayed cardiotoxic effects of chemotherapy.

With the prognosis for many cancers improving, we are seeing an appropriate sharpening of focus on the cardiovascular risks of patients who have survived cancer or are being treated for cancer, as well as a growing recognition of the impact this competing morbidity has on both short- and long-term health outcomes.

With the explosion of new therapies in cancer care, the risk of each new therapy must be clearly understood prior to making treatment decisions with patients. Data from clinical trials alone are insufficient to educate these treatment choices, and real-world evidence from higher-risk populations should be generated to inform these treatment decisions.

A study published in Nature Medicine highlights how genetic data can be translated in disease prevention and evidence-based clinical management.

ASCO says that it's Patient-Centered Oncology Payment model meets the criteria for an Alternative Payment Model as defined by Congress in the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, which replaced the Sustainable Growth Rate formula.

Researchers at Cancer Research UK have challenged the current standard of care in advanced ovarian cancer patients. Results of their study, published in Lancet, found that administering chemotherapy prior to surgery can have huge benefits on health outcomes and the patient's quality of life.

With studies showing that patients overestimate the benefits of cancer screening and are misinformed about the potential harms, the American College of Physicians has issues advice for screening adults with average risk and no symptoms for 5 common cancers: breast, colorectal, ovarian, prostate, and cervical.

A Science study found that recurrent mutations in the promoter of the telomerase gene, TERT, could be responsible for overexpression of telomerase in a majority of cancers, thereby sustaining the replicative potential of cancer cells.

The realm of cancer care remains a holdout in the movement toward value-based payment models, with implications for cost and health outcomes, according to authors of a new article in The American Journal of Managed Care. Authors from the Center for Health Policy at the Brookings Institution assert that new payment models can be adopted by all payer and provider types, with benefits over the traditional fee-for-service model.

Large data sets like SEER need better quality control checks and researchers and clinicians who use these data sets should also consider using secondary data analyses that answer specific research questions. This is the advice of a senior urologist following the removal of the PSA data.

The American Journal of Managed Care's Patient-Centered Oncology Care meeting is an important event for anyone interested in "crossing the chasm" that appears between providers and the rest of the healthcare world, explained Peter P. Yu, MD, president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

The authors examine 4 alternative payment models for oncology care that shift away from fee-for-service and move progressively toward greater bundling, either across providers or across payments.

The study, conducted by researchers at the Henry Ford Hospital, found that complications associated with robot-assisted radical prostatectomies were higher in low-volume hospitals, with relatively inexperienced staff.

This week The American Journal of Managed Care launched its new Managed Markets News Network, featuring the top stories in managed care and interviews with industry experts.

Raising awareness of the dangers of mouth and throat cancer increased the number of black men in some of Florida's poorest counties who sought screening for the first time, which could improve survival rates through early detection and treatment.