Oncology

An approach including yoga, holistic nursing, and a "healing environment" can decrease medication use, resulting in substantial cost savings in care of inpatient oncology patients.

Offering home fecal immunochemical tests to eligible patients during influenza vaccination clinic increases colorectal cancer screening rates.

Colorectal cancer screening use was similar in 2 divergent primary care populations. Colonoscopy was the most frequently used modality; FOBT was used inconsistently.

A decision-analytic model was used to estimate cost-effectiveness of adopting a 21-gene assay in treatment decisions for women with early-stage N (1-3)/ER HER2-negative breast cancer.

Dr. Jeffrey Dunn describes the trends and practices for managing oncology-related treatments.

The editors introduce this special issue, which contributes to an ongoing dialogue in cancer care that explores the tension between new therapeutics and the ever-increasing need to limit resources.

This study characterized patterns and costs of medical care by disease phase in patients with newly diagnosed mCRC using a large US national commercially insured claims database.

Adherence to colon cancer post-treatment surveillance was low, although proportions of patients complying with office visits and colonoscopy were reasonably high.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology Quality Oncology Practice Initiative has grown to include 973 practices as of 2010. Practices demonstrated rates of end-of-life care and other measures of quality.

Ten percent of patients abandon newly initiated oral oncolytics at the pharmacy. Patients facing higher cost sharing or increased concurrent prescription activity have a higher abandonment rate.

Retrospective evaluations of electronic health records and claims databases to assess clinical outcomes and costs associated with evidence-based pathways in colon cancer.

A study of major US private payers showed an important role and considerable shortcomings of external health technology assessment in coverage decisions on personalized medicine.

The likelihood of chemotherapy being cost-effective for patients with metastatic prostate cancer differs across racial subgroups. This uncertainty presents challenges for managed-care decision makers.

Economic evaluations of adjuvant trastuzumab were reviewed. Three primary shortcomings were identified including incorporation of local data and estimation and representation (visual) of decision uncertainty.

We measured the financial consequences of new CRC treatment regimens. New regimens have increased cost directly through price and indirectly through nonstandard and second-line regimen use.