Oncology

Cancer patients are agreeing to treatment plans lacking a fundamental understanding of the impacts on their finances, explained Ellen Miller Sonet, MBA, JD, chief strategy and policy officer, CancerCare.

While there isn’t a lot of hard science out yet, there have been benefits seen for both patients and practices when integrated cancer care teams are used, Thomas Asfeldt, MBA, RN, director of Outpatient Cancer Services at Sanford Cancer Center.

Michael Thompson, MD, PhD, FASCO, Aurora Advanced Healthcare, outlines novel therapies being used in the treatment of hematologic malignancies and identified biomarkers for deciding on a treatment approach.

Jamie Bakkum-Gamez, MD, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology and Gynecologic oncologist at Mayo Clinic, talks about the importance of a patient receiving genetic counseling after an ovarian cancer diagnosis.

Last year, the FDA expanded the indications of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) drug tocilizumab (Actemra) to include the treatment of cytokine release syndrome (CRS) caused by CAR T-cell therapy. Recently, 2 studies have identified another rheumatoid arthritis drug that could be more effective in the treatment of CRS.

The Paxman Scalp Cooling System is now indicated to reduce the likelihood of chemotherapy-induced alopecia in patients with solid tumors, such as ovarian, breast, colorectal, bowel, and prostate cancer.

Results, lessons, and challenges of a local lung cancer screening program within a national demonstration project.

A new study has shown that older female beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare, who undergo mammography screenings, have a greater likelihood of following up with other preventive tests. “It’s encouraging to see that women undergoing mammography may have increased awareness to other preventive screening measures,” said study author Stella Kang, MD, MSc, NYU School of Medicine.

Leonard Saltz, MD, executive director of Clinical Value and Sustainability, head of Colorectal Oncology Section, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the role next-generation sequencing currently plays in advancing precision medicine.

Yesterday, the FDA announced that it has expanded the indications of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) to include recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer with disease progression on or after chemotherapy whose tumors express PD-L1.

The 70 National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer centers underscored the importance of increased HPV vaccination and evidence-based screening, with the goal of eliminating cancers caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV).

Farmers, gardeners, and mountain guides—all at a greater risk for nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) due to increased solar ultraviolet radiation exposure—participate in varying risk and protective behaviors, and have different risks for NMSC.

Mark Fleury, PhD, MS, principal of Policy Development and Emerging Science at the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), has highlighted the advocacy efforts the organization was involved in from the local level to the federal level.

When creating a care coordination model, it is important to understand what the model is trying to achieve and what everyone’s roles are in the model, explained Barbara Tofani, RN, MSN, NEA-BC, administrative director of the Hunterdon Regional Cancer Center.

In April, researchers from the University of Colorado Cancer Center completed the largest study of thyroid cancer genetics to date, the results of which were published in Clinical Cancer Research.

Every week, The American Journal of Managed Care® recaps the top managed care news of the week, and you can now listen to it on our podcast, Managed Care Cast.

"It is time for patients to have more control over what is prescribed to them and technologies like chemoWave are giving them that power." A cancer diagnosis leads to chemoWave, an app for recording patient-reported outcomes.

Coverage of our peer-reviewed research and news reporting in the healthcare and mainstream press.

At the 2018 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting, a study conducted in France revealed the impact of electronic patient-reported outcomes (PROs) on survival among patients being treated for lung cancer. The study was presented by Fabrice Denis, MD, PhD, radiation oncologist at Institut Inter-regional de Cancérologie Jean Bernard, Le Mans, France.

Accurate prediction of the natural history of prostate cancer is necessary to avoid overtreatment, which increases the morbidity rate in men and is costly to the healthcare system. Biomarkers, or molecular testing of the prostate cancer tumor tissue, can more accurately predict the aggressiveness of prostate cancer and help physicians determine who needs definitive treatment and who can safely pursue active surveillance.

Telehealth, a universal term for the use of digital information and communication technologies to remotely access healthcare services, is improving availability of healthcare services, particularly for patients in rural areas.

The authors speculated that some cancer regimens, such as those with corticosteroids, cause hyperglycemia.

During a session at the 2018 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting, June 1-5, in Chicago, Illinois, panelists discussed the financial burdens of cancer diagnosis and treatment, the barriers facing clinicians and patients in discussing these financial burdens, and solutions that can be implemented to alleviate the burden.

A study recently published in Cell investigated the deletion of the CD33 protein to enable CAR T-cells to more accurately target and attack cancerous cells in patients with n acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

While it is well understood that, in the general population, regular exercise is associated with a reduced risk of death, less is known about whether exercise is similarly beneficial for adult survivors of childhood cancer who may already have an increased risk of death and a shortened life expectancy because of late effects of treatment.