Clinical

More pharmaceutical companies are buying drugs that they see as undervalued, then raising the prices. It is one of a number of industry tactics, driving up the cost of drugs.

A treatment approved for the most common form of hepatitis C in the US was also highly effective in less widespread variants, researchers reported at the European Association for the Study of the Liver annual meeting.

The study found that despite an increase in the armamentarium of drugs to treat multiple sclerosis, the cost of the drugs has skyrocketed and not dropped.

While brachytherapy improved progression-free survival in men with prostate cancer, compared with traditional readiotherapy, the study found that overall survival was not very different between the 2 groups.

Remote monitoring for heart failure patients resulted in fewer hospitalizations and deaths than a similar group of patients receiving usual care during a 4-month study, but the benefits didn't last beyond the study period.

Historically, people talk about pathways as if they are an answer, but they are really just one component to cancer care delivery, said Laura Long, MD, MPH, president at TheLongView, PC.

The panel discussion, "Tackling Advanced Care Planning in Payment Reform: People and Politics" at the 2015 Community Oncology Conference, included a provider who is an active proponent of advanced care planning (ACP), a program director at a nonprofit health insurance company, and a healthcare consultant who until recently worked for a big health plan.

For all their talk about evidence-based medicine, a lot of doctors don't follow the clinical guidelines set by leading medical groups.

With the rising prices of innovative oncology treatments, many of which fall under specialty pharmaceuticals, curbing the cost of care is high on the agenda of healthcare providers.

Results presented at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2015 show the presence of a known driver of non-small cell lung cancer in small cell lung cancer, implying that promising treatments for the former may be applicable to the latter form of the disease.