Oncology

Provenge, approved by the FDA in 2010, faced numerous road-blocks with high cost, limited benefit, and issues with reimbursement rates.

The FDA Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee voted against recommending panobinostat plus bortezomib and dexamethasone for patients with previously treated multiple myeloma.

The treatment, conducted at the University of Pennsylvania, identified a mutation in the BRaf gene which is commonly mutated in melanoma. Subsequent treatment with dabrafenib and trametinib resulted in rapid tumor shrinkage.

The study results from the National Lung Screening Trial found cost-effectiveness and value of screening long-term smokers when screened by trained professionals.

Ileana Arias, PhD, CDC principal deputy director, recommends active screening by Pap test and HPV test, and vaccination of young boys and girls to improve early detection and prevention rates.

The drug combination showed a significant improvement of 2.2 months in OS compared to the placebo arm.

Despite decades of efforts to target the Ras protein, mutated in a number of different cancers, the progress has been slow. Now, scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology in Germany have devised a way to prevent translocation of Ras to the cell surface, a process essential for protein activation.

The study, published in JAMA, found a 50% improvement in survival in patients with metastatic melanoma who were treated with ipilimumab, if they simultaneously received an immune stimulant.

COTA will expand Foundation Medicine's molecular information knowledge base with longitudinal clinical outcomes and cost of care data and analytics.

Trebananib combined with paclitaxel improved survival by a month compared to the placebo, from 18.3 months to 19.3 months.

The study by Andrew Mulcahy, a policy researcher at the RAND Corporation, found that the predicted $44 billion saving to the US healthcare system over the next decade, would depend on FDA decisions on newer biosimilar drug candidates.

The study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, found that out-of-pocket costs influenced adherence to hormone therapy in women with HR-positive, early-stage breast cancer.

The BRCAnalysis test will be used in conjunction with Abbvie's novel PARP inhibitor veliparib for the treatment of breast cancer.

Research to be presented this week at the National Cancer Research Institute Cancer Conference has identified the expression of specific serum microRNAs in pediatric solid tumors, which could prove useful for early diagnosis.

CMS released final rules for both the 2015 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and the 2015 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System.

bioTheranostics, Inc's Breast Cancer Index, a genomic test quantifying the risk of breast cancer recurrence and predicting which patients will likely benefit from extended endocrine therapy, will be covered by Medicare.

Google is aiming to diagnose cancers, impending heart attacks or strokes and other diseases, at a much earlier stage than is currently possible.

The guideline, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, recommends against using PSA to screen for prostate cancer, pointing to the high risk of false positives and overdiagnosis.

The retrospective study analyzed SEER data from 2001 through 2009, and found that the annual CAD prevalence among Medicare screening mammograms increased from 3.5% to 79.7%.

The retrospective study, results of which were presented at the 2014 Chicago Multidisciplinary Symposium in Thoracic Oncology, showed that the total diagnostic workup cost for the study sample of Medicare beneficiaries was $38.3 million.

The Danish study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, identified a 70% greater risk of severe depression in the first year after diagnosis.

Phase 2 results from the Checkmate-063 trial found that treatment with the PD-1 inhibitor Nivolumab (Opdivo) resulted in a median OS of 8.2 months in NSCLC patients who had received 2 prior treatments.

The European Medicines Agency granted an orphan status to ATIR, a T-cell immunotherapy-based medicinal product being developed to treat blood cancers.