Jaime Rosenberg

During a session at the 2018 Genitourinay Cancers Symposium, Abhishek Solanki, MD, MS, assistant professor, radiation oncology, Loyola University of Chicago discussed the role of immunotherapy in patients undergoing radiation therapy for bladder cancer.

With new guidelines on how to treat and manage muscle-invasive bladder cancer, Jeffrey Holzbeierlein, MD, FACS, professor of urology, director of urologic oncology, interim chair of the department of urology, University of Kansas Health System, provided insight into how the guidelines have changed the management of the disease at the 2018 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.

During a session at the 2018 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, 2 doctors debate whether there is existing evidence for local treatment for patients newly diagnosed with metastatic disease.

Osteomimicry may contribute to the uptake of radium-223 within bone metastases and may subsequently enhance the therapeutic benefit of radium-223, according to an abstract presented by Andrew Armstrong, MD, associate professor of medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, at the 2018 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.

Apalutamide significantly improved median metastasis-free survival by 2 years in men with nonmetastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (nmCRPC), according to study results presented by Eric Jay Small, MD, MD, FASCO, chief of the division of hematology and oncology in the department of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), deputy director of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, and professor in residence in the Department of Medicine and Department of Urology, at the 2018 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.

From 2002 to 2015, CD4 cell counts at the start of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) increased, and the proportion of individuals with severe immunodeficiency at the start of cART decreased among all income groups, according to a study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Communities nationwide have been forming partnerships between healthcare providers and community-based organizations in an effort to enhance health-related social needs. Researchers from The Commonwealth Fund highlighted common challenges and proposed solutions for these partnerships.

CONCORD-3 includes the records of 37.5 million patients diagnosed with cancer from 2000 to 2014, 322 population-based cancer registries in 71 countries and territories, and data on patients' vital status at least 5 years following diagnosis.

Using an “ingestible mini pill box,” researchers have developed a slow-release pill to deliver HIV treatment. Once inside the stomach, the capsule unfolds into a 6-armed structure, accommodating multiple drugs at a time.

Higher resting heart rate (HR) and increases in HR over time are associated with increased risk of adverse cardiovascular (CV) and non-CV events, such as incident heart failure and all-cause mortality, according to a study published in JAMA Cardiology.

Coverage from the 59th Annual Meeting and Exposition of the American Society of Hematology, December 9-12, 2017.

While the wholesale acquisition cost of the hemophilia A drug is approximately $482,000 for the first year of treatment and $448,000 for subsequent years, a draft report found that the drug would reduce the budget by approximately $1.85 billion per patient annually for patients aged 12 and older. In patents aged 12 and younger, emicizumab at wholesale acquisition cost pricing would reduce the budget by approximately $720,000 per patient annually.

The mobile health services company CareSpeak provides an interactive health messaging platform through 2-way texting designed to engage patients and/or their caregivers, family, and friends throughout the patient journey.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has been named the Advance of the Year in ASCO’s Clinical Cancer Advances 2018. According to the annual report, CAR T-cell therapy is “poised to transform the outlook for children and adults with certain otherwise incurable cancers."

As a result of the Medicare Outpatient Prospective Payment System rule that took effect on January 1, 85% of 340B hospitals will see net payment increases in 2018. Rural hospitals will reap the largest benefits, according to an analysis conducted by Avalere and commissioned by Community Oncology Alliance.

As health information technology (IT) tools are continually being introduced into the healthcare sphere, organizations are utilizing these tools to optimize care coordination, patient experience, and patient outcomes. Today, 2 organizations join us; 1 uses a 2-way text messaging platform to support patients and increase medication adherence, and the other is teaming up with a pharmaceutical company to develop health IT solutions in order to enhance precision medicine in oncology.

The most common reasons pepole give for never being tested for HIV is that they were "unlikely to have been exposed to HIV" and they were “never offered an HIV test," according to a National Health Statistics Reports.

High cost sharing is associated with reduced and/or delayed access to targeted therapies under Medicare Part D for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma, suggesting that financial barriers play a significant role in treatment decisions, according to a study published in Cancer Medicine.

The study will evaluate the current preferred first-line regimen for pregnant women recommended by the World Health Organization and 2 regimens containing newer antiretroviral drugs that are becoming more widely used.

Earlier this month, CMS announced that 561 accountable care organizations will be participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program in 2018, with 10.5 million assigned beneficiaries.

A government shutdown would have far-reaching implications for public health, with health services halted and almost half of HHS staff furloughed. In an updated contingency plan, HHS outlined which activities would continue during a shutdown and which would not.

Researchers assessed associations between the duration of oral contraceptive use and ovarian, endometrial, breast, and colorectal cancer risk and whether these associations were modified by certain modifiable lifestyle factors.

More and more, practices around the country are switching from paper-based systems to electronic health records (EHRs). EHRs are increasingly becoming a crucial tool in healthcare, improving communication and facilitating care coordination. However, with these benefits also come challenges and unintended consequences. Jacob Reider, MD, CEO of Alliance for Better Health, dicusses the benefits of EHRs, their consequences, and working toward a time when interoperability becomes a reality nationwide.

Biomarkers of renal dysfunction, endothelial dysfunction, and inflammation were associated with incident heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. By contrast, only natriuretic peptides and urinary albumin to creatinine ratio were associated with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), a finding that highlights the need for future studies focused on identifying novel biomarkers of the risk of HFpEF, according to a study in JAMA Cardiology.

Researchers at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute have developed a method that more accurately identifies new versus long-standing HIV infections, an important distinction when determining where to target public health initiatives and research.

The FDA has launched a new pilot program that will evaluate whether disclosing certain information within clinical study reports following approval of a new drug application enhances public access to drug approval information, according to a statement by FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD. The agency is also working to add a trial's ClinicalTrials.gov identifier number to the agency’s materials for future drug approvals.

Poor baseline Lung Immune Prognistic Index (combining derived neutrophils ratio greater than 3 and lactate dehydrogenase greater than upper limit of normal), or LIPI, was associated with worse outcomes for immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) treatment in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but not with results of chemotherapy, according to a study in JAMA Oncology.

The trial evaluates the immunotherapy drug durvalumab as maintenance therapy in patients who have successfully undergone R0/R1 resection of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma following neoadjuvant chemotherapy and completion of adjuvant chemotherapy.

Although people with HIV are more susceptible to the hepatitis B virus, there is a low prevalence of hepatitis B vaccination among patients receiving medical care for HIV infection in the United States, according to a study in Annals of Internal Medicine.

The approval expands the use of olaparib to include the treatment of patients with BRCA-mutated HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer. The FDA also expanded the approval of Myriad’s BRCAnalysis CDx, a companion diagnostic to olaparib, to include the detection of BRCA mutations.