Clinical

What we're reading, October, 6, 2016: UnitedHealth is sued for allegedly overcharging on prescription drugs; the Obama administration could point consumers to remaining insurance options as insurers leave the Affordable Care Act exchanges; and human life spans may have it a ceiling.

Persistent low income in young adulthood and middle age may raise the risk for worse cognitive function by age 50, according to a study of more than 3300 adults who were followed for more than 2 decades. In addition, the study suggested that poverty and perceived hardship may be important contributors to premature aging among disadvantaged populations.

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.

While body mass index is a good indicator for obesity, there are various other factors and clinical symptoms that need to be taken into account when diagnosing and treating a patient for obesity, explained Ted Kyle, RPh, MBA, principal at ConscienHealth.

Even when following clinical guidelines, some patients will respond far better to treatment than others, and some will have worse side effects than expected. During a session at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy 2016 Nexus meeting, Nicole Scovis, PharmD, BCPS, BCACP, and Sandra Leal, PharmD, MPH, both of SinfoniaRx in Tucson, Arizona, explained how precision medicine can be integrated into primary care practice to improve care.

A draft guidance issued by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) rejected use of Merck's programmed death-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in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.

The cancer community has seen tremendous progress in the field of immunotherapy. However, educating patients and care providers across healthcare on this new tool remains a significant challenge.

The Jackson Heart Study continues to yield insights about the nature of cardiovascular disease in minority populations.

For a long time, researchers were unsure if atopic dermatitis was primarily a barrier disease or an immune-driven disease, but dupilumab has provided a more clear-cut answer, said Emma Guttman-Yassky, MD, PhD, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York.

Based on ICER’s evaluation, a significant reduction in the wholesale acquisition cost (WAC) of approved checkpoint inhibitors would be necessary to achieve a pre-determined value-based price benchmark.

What we're reading, September 29, 2016: as part of the bill to prevent a government shutdown, the Senate has finally approved Zika virus funding; electronic health record breaches skyrocketed from 2014 to 2015; and California passes "right to try" law for terminally ill patients.

Focus on behavioral interventions to prevent HIV transmission has been unsuccessful but the more recent intervention of using antiretroviral drugs has more promise, said Thomas C. Quinn, MD, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health.

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic are recommending that premenopausal women with a low risk of ovarian cancer should be spared unnecessary comorbidities associated with bilateral oophorectomy.

A new study has found that after adjusting for changes in screening, there was a decrease in incidence of all grades of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) for women 15- to 19-years old, and CIN grade 2 in women 20- to 24-years old.

A study published in the journal Cancer has discovered that a 2012 recommendation for prostate cancer screening did not change physician behavior.

Mohs surgery is generally the gold standard for rare and more aggressive tumors because the surgeon can ensure the roots of the tumor are gone, but the technique keeps the hole small, said Ally-Khan B. Somani, MD, PhD, at the 25th European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology Congress.

Reimbursement issues surrounding Mohs surgery are getting worse, which provides a challenge for surgeons who would perform the procedure, explained Aleksandar L. Krunic, MD, PhD, during the 25th European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology Congress.

A new study presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology has found a significant survival advantage of combining chemotherapy and radiotherapy following surgery in patients with medulloblastoma.

Barring major advances in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), hospitalizations for the disease will increase by more than 150% over the next 15 years in developed countries

Use of stereotactic body radiation therapy improved survival in elderly patients diagnosed with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer by about 20% over a decade.

A new study by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine has identified a predictive biomarker in stage IV patients with melanoma being treated with the pembrolizumab.

The American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases/Infectious Diseases Society of America Guidance Panel is recommending that before patients begin antiviral therapies for the treatment of hepatitis C, that they be screened for hepatitis B, as well.