Oncology

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A draft guidance issued by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) rejected use of Merck's programmed death-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in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

The funds that the Patient Access Network (PAN) Foundation provides to patients are often used to help with the cost of medications, and there has been a large increase in the number of patients looking for assistance for the cost of cancer treatments, explained Daniel J. Klein, president and CEO of the PAN Foundation.

A study suggests that regions of England where patients show less awareness of cancer symptoms tend to have lower cancer survival rates, particularly in lower-income areas. The research, published in the British Journal of Cancer also examined whether barriers to care can affect the likelihood of surviving different cancers.

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.

This week, the top stories in managed care included 2 reports on the fight against addiction, researchers have learned more about the effects of healthy living on avoiding cancers, and a study finds fitness trackers do not help people lose more weight.

Timothy M. Johnson, MD, spoke enthusiastically about the possibilities of sentinel lymph node biopsy in his lecture at the 25th European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology Congress in Vienna, Austria. His presentation, called “Melanoma Sentinel Node Biopsy: Past, Present and Future in the New Era of Systemic Therapies,” covered guidelines for the procedure as well as new possibilities for melanoma patients.

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.

While there have been large increases in the cost of new cancer treatments for patients with metastatic breast, lung, or kidney cancer, or chronic myeloid leukemia, researchers found that there were also large gains in life expectancy.

Patients with melanoma have more promising options than ever with the advent of targeted therapies and immunotherapies, said Mario Lacouture, MD, director of the Oncodermatology Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. His research aims to provide patients the best possible quality of life while taking these treatments, which can often have adverse effects.

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.

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.

Advancement in basic science and medical technology has made cancer a curable disease for many patients. Approximately 40% of Americans will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, but as of 2014, 1 in 22 Americans is a cancer survivor, which equals 14.5 million cancer survivors in the US, explained Joseph C. Alvarnas, MD, director of value-based analytics for the City of Hope.

Jack Whelan, an e-patient advocate and patient with a rare blood disease, spoke at The American Journal of Managed Care’s 4th Annual Patient-Centered Oncology Care Meeting. In his presentation, Whelan explained that patient centricity and education is important for all parties in the healthcare industry to better take hold of.