Oncology

In both primary care and specialty practices, nurse practitioners not only have a growing presence, but they also play an increasingly key role in delivering care to patients in these settings.

KEYNOTE-048, a phase 3 trial studying pembrolizumab (Keytruda) as a first-line treatment for patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) whose tumors overexpress PD-L1, has met a primary end point of overall survival.

Clinical findings as presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's Annual Meeting in June 2018.

We know that there are a lot of problems with precision medicine and lots of areas that we need to define better, but that shouldn’t stop us from moving forward and trying to optimize the care for our patients, said Michael Thompson, MD, PhD, FASCO, Aurora Advanced Healthcare.

During the 2018 American Society of Clinical Oncology’s (ASCO) Annual Meeting, researchers presented findings on 3 biosimilar trastuzumab products: Samsung Bioepis’ SB3, Agmen’s ABP 980, and Biocad’s Herticad.

A second biosimilar to Amgen’s Neupogen, which treats neutropenia, has been approved in the United States. The FDA approved Pfizer’s filgrastim-aafi, which will be sold under the brand name Nivestym. Zarxio (filgrastim-sndz) was the first filgrastim biosimilar approved by the FDA in 2015.

A study of over 35,000 women with early-stage breast cancer found that where you live makes a difference in terms of what kind of posttreatment imaging is received, due to geographic variation.

Sara M. Tolaney, MD, MPH, instructor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, attending physician of medical oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, outlines the role of adjuvant therapy in treating patients with HER2-positive breast cancer, as well as the absence of biomarkers in this patient population.

The FDA approved the first targeted therapy for adults with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia with an IDH1 mutation. In addition, FDA also approved a companion diagnostic to be used to detect the specific mutations in the IDH1 gene.

While the connection between diabetes and cancer has been known, this study was the first to show that women with diabetes face a higher risk than men with the disease.

Acetazolamide, sold under the trade name Diamox, is a drug used to treat altitude sickness, glaucoma, epilepsy, heart failure, and seizures. According to a new study, acetazolamide may also be effective in treating the fast-growing brain tumor glioblastoma.

The FDA has expanded its approval of ribociclib (Kisqali) to treat hormone receptor-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative advanced or metastatic breast cancer under 2 new pilot programs to make the development and review of cancer drugs more efficient.

The implementation of alternative payment models that successfully capture clinical heterogeneity—without adding unacceptable levels of administrative complexity—may be equally (if not more) important than site-neutral payment policies.

Spending on chemotherapy drugs was lower among Medicare beneficiaries who received chemotherapy in hospital outpatient departments than among comparable beneficiaries receiving chemotherapy in physician offices.