Value in Cancer Care: AJMC Publishes ASCO Conference Coverage, Statement from Chief Medical Officer

PLAINSBORO, N.J. — Evidence-Based Oncology, the news publication of The American Journal of Managed Care, this week added to the chorus of discussion on what constitutes value in cancer care when it published coverage from the 50th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, held May 30 to June 3, 2014, in Chicago.

As outlined by Managing Editor Surabhi Dangi-Garimella, PhD, in “How Do You Establish Value in Cancer Care?” defining value has become difficult for clinicians and payers alike, to say nothing of cancer patients, as researchers push the envelope not only on what cancer therapies can do, but also on what patients and their insurers can afford. As Dangi-Garimella writes in Evidenced-Based Oncology, the National Cancer Institute estimated the costs of cancer therapy were $124.6 billion in 2010 and are projected to reach $207 billion by 2010; already, cancer care accounts for 11 percent of all healthcare expenditures.

Once a discussion among frustrated insurers, the rising cost of cancer therapies broke into the national fray last October when New York magazine published, “The Cost of Living,” which outlined how some hospitals were pushing back against the cost of some first-line therapies. ASCO has taken on the discussion, and some of the coverage in Evidence-Based Oncology’s special issue on the ASCO meeting addresses the key topics: overdiagnosis and overtreatment, use of clinical pathways, and how the Affordable Care Act will affect care.

A commentary in the special issue, "Achieving Value in Cancer—The Case of Low- and Middle-Income Countries", co-authored by Dr Ajay Aggarwal and Dr Richard Sullivan from the Institute of Cancer Policy, UK, along with the coverage of the joint session between ASCO and the ECCO, "ASCO/European CanCer Organisation (ECCO) Joint Session: Value and Cancer Care" at the annual meeting, have now been uploaded by Dr Sullivan on academia.edu, an open-access platform for researchers around the world to share their work. Here are the links: (ASCO session: http://bit.ly/1lyad4N; Commentary: http://bit.ly/1qM41Cl).

The regular issue of Evidence-Based Oncology features a statement from Richard L. Schilsky, MD, chief medical officer of ASCO, entitled, ”Initiative to Define Value In Cancer Care,” which outlines the organization’s effort to lead a national discussion on how to help clinicians and patients determine what constitutes value in care.

The American Journal of Managed Care will continue the discussion of value in cancer care when it hosts Patient-Centered Oncology Care, a two-day conference in Baltimore, Md., November 13-14, 2014. ASCO President Peter Paul Yu, MD, will be one of two keynote speakers at the conference. For more information and registration, click here.

About the Journal

The American Journal of Managed Care, now in its 20^th year of publication, is the leading peer-reviewed journal dedicated to issues in managed care. Other titles in the AJMC family of publications are The American Journal of Pharmacy Benefits, which provides pharmacy and formulary decision makers with information to improve the efficiency and health outcomes in managing pharmaceutical care. In December 2013, AJMC introduced The American Journal of Accountable Care, which publishes research and commentary devoted to understanding changes to the healthcare system due to the 2010 Affordable Care Act. AJMC’s news publications, the Evidence-Based series, bring together stakeholder views from payers, providers, policymakers and pharmaceutical leaders in the areas of oncology, diabetes management, and immunology and infectious disease. To order reprints of articles appearing in AJMC publications, please call (609) 716-7777, x 131.

CONTACT: Mary Caffrey (609) 716-7777 x 144

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