Oncology

During the Oncology Stakeholder's Summit 2015 hosted by AJMC, healthcare experts discuss the value of introducing palliative and end-of-life care discussions early in oncology care.

The American Journal of Managed Care invited healthcare experts to discuss the challenges associated with managing and paying for newer and more expensive agents in oncology, during the Oncology Stakeholders Summit.

The top story of the week was Aetna's purchase of Humana, which signals a growth in government managed care. In addition, the 340B drug discount program came under fire after a report from the Government Accountability Office.

The concept of value may be, and is, interpreted differently among healthcare stakeholders, and not only do cancer patients define value differently from policy makers, but also from other patients.

A landmark clinical trial that will channel patients into treatment arms based on molecular abnormalities rather than cancer type aims to simultaneously test the efficacy of more than 20 drugs.

Two posters summarized the safety of nivolumab in lung cancer and in glioblastoma, at the ASCO annual meeting.

A study of Kaiser Permanente cancer patients found that two-thirds of teen and young adult patients received aggressive care at the end of life. The special issue on the topic comes as CMS proposes paying doctors or nurses to discuss advanced care planning.

As innovations in cancer care transform the disease into a chronic illness, the survivorship population encompasses more than early stage patients but survivors of long term metastatic disease as well, explains Crystal S. Denlinger, MD, Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia.

While a better understanding has led to a drop in the colorectal cancer death rate by half, the progress made in the last few decades has not been equal across the United States, according to a study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

In part 1 of "First Do No Harm," Ms Madden noted important new research suggesting that the majority of patients with HER2+ breast cancer who are treated with the anti-HER2 agent trastuzumab do not receive sufficient cardiac monitoring. In part 2, she discusses the implications of this recent study for patients with this aggressive form of breast cancer and protective strategies against preventable harms of their treatment.

The widespread use of screening mammography increases the probability of detecting smaller cancers without a decline in the detection of large cancers.

ICLIO promises to guide oncologists in community care practices to navigate the growing field of immuno-oncology.

The report found that Medicare Part B spending per beneficiary in 340B hospitals was more than twice that of hospitals outside the program. Groups such as the Community Oncology Alliance have long warned that the 340B program, while essential, has grown beyond its original intent.

Although the CDC expects death rates for most cancers to decrease by 2020, melanoma is the exception and new cases are expected to cost $1.6 billion in 2030.

Bruce Feinberg, DO, vice president and chief medical office at Cardinal Health Specialty Solutions, explains why he attends the sessions at Patient-Centered Oncology Care.

To evaluate the current status of cancer mortality following the initiation of HP2020, CDC scientists evaluated population trends and made projections on cancer deaths based on race and gender.

With a growing understanding of the risk of cardiotoxicity associated with cancer treatment, cardio-oncology has emerged as an important subspecialty, resulting in the establishment of cardio-oncology programs most often based at or in collaboration with comprehensive cancer centers.

Metastatic colorectal cancer patients with higher body mass index (BMI) outlived patients with the lowest BMI by an average of 2-and-a-half months, according to new data presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology 17th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer 2015.

This week the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the government in King v. Burwell, preserving access to healthcare subsidies for millions of Americans, and the high cost of cancer drug was in the spotlight.

Researchers at the MD Anderson Cancer Center have developed a blood test that can detect very early stages of pancreatic cancer before disease progression.

NICE has updated and redesigned its guideline to support primary care physicians to recognize the signs and symptoms of 37 different cancers and refer people for the right tests faster.

A clinical trial at the University of Alabama will be enrolling patients in the first-ever study of an open-label placebo in cancer.

A more selective use of biomarker testing for patients with breast cancer could save millions of dollars without compromising the care they receive, according to the results of a study published in The American Journal of Surgical Pathology.

A framework that primarily considers clinical benefit, toxicity, and cost of new treatments was released today by ASCO. A presscast complementing the release described the framework as a tool for providers to discuss value of new treatments with patients, compared with the standard of care.

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine says a CT scan following a first venous thromboebolism event may not benefit in detecting cancer.