Oncology

New research has found that the steady increase in the price of targeted oral anticancer medications is washing out the potential for savings that patients would experience in their out-of-pocket payments following closure of the Medicare Part D coverage gap.

Amidst news of Senator John McCain’s glioblastoma diagnosis, a recent discussion between 2 neuro-oncology researchers explored the reasons why this aggressive brain tumor is so difficult to manage, and outlined the ongoing investigations into possible therapies.

There’s a lot happening in clinical practice with immunotherapy treatments: expanded indications for nivolumab and ipilimumab, biomarkers to judge patient response to combinations, and developments with CAR-T.

Provider roles in team-based care in oncology need clarity, and now, results from a new study affirm the confusion experience by patients treated for breast cancer on who should lead their care posttreatment.

The approval follows a review of phase 2 results from CheckMate-142.

The new immunotherapy of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells has demonstrated the ability to increase clinical remission in multiple myeloma patients by targeting the B-cell maturation protein that participates in disease progression.

Enasidenib (Idhifa), developed by Celgene and Agios, has been granted FDA approval in tandem with a companion diagnostic test to detect IDH-2 mutations.

After the Affordable Care Act (ACA) required private insurers to pay the standard-of-care costs for patients participating in approved clinical trials, the rate of patients cleared by their insurer to take part in early-phase oncology trials has increased, a new study has found.

The FDA has announced a regulatory plan that could shift the trajectory on tobacco-related disease and death.

The FDA has expanded the indication of Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Yervoy (ipilimumab) to include the treatment of pediatric patients 12 years of age and older with unresectable or metastatic melanoma.

Venetoclax (Venclexta), in combination with low dose cytarabine, has been granted a breakthrough therapy designation for use in elderly, treatment-naive patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who cannot handle intensive chemotherapy.

AstraZeneca announced that its immuno-oncology drug durvalumab, in combination with tremelimumab, failed to meet a progression-free survival endpoint in the MYSTIC trial in patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

A new study has analyzed data from randomized controlled trials in oncology that used surrogate endpoints and measured their relation with treatment effectiveness and patient survival in the real world.

Study used gene biomarker to identify which patients with colon cancer would not benefit from chemotherapy.

During a panel hosted by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), patient advocates and survivorship experts discussed the strides made in the field of cancer survivorship research.

Researchers have identified a cellular signaling pathway that when activated by mutations may prevent immune cells from infiltrating bladder tumors, thus making the cancer resistant to immune checkpoint inhibitors.

This study investigates the cost-effectiveness of a community-based patient navigation program to improve cervical cancer screening.

The Women’s Health Initiative Dietary Modification Trial examined the long-term influence of low-fat eating patterns on the breast cancer mortality rate.

Patient refusal, symptom burden, and diagnostic disparities were identified as some of the most common barriers encountered when recruiting patients with advanced cancer for palliative treatment in the emergency department (ED).

The Journal of Clinical Investigation Insight recently published a study that analyzed 112 different melanoma tumors in attempt to correlate partially exhausted cytotoxic lymphocytes (peCTLs) and regulatory T lymphocyte (Treg) levels with response to combination immunotherapy.

Being overweight or obese as a teenager raises the risk of developing colon cancer later in life, a new study in the journal CANCER has found.

A study on long-term remission of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) shows that Kite Pharma’s anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor-T (CAR-T) cell treatment resulted in remission for up to 56 months.

In a study presented at the 2017 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting, researchers at MD Anderson Cancer Center used data on 12,052 elderly patients diagnosed with neuroendocrine tumors to analyze their resource utilization.

In a study presented at the 2017 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Metting, researchers from the Brazilian Cancer Foundation and the Brazilian National Cancer Institute evaluated the cost-effectiveness of a unique exam using next-generation sequencing versus other routine tests.

Including adjuvant chemotherapy in the postsurgical treatment plan in patients with non—small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) improves survival and is cost-effective compared with surgical resection alone, according to analysis results presented at the 2017 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting.

CT-P6, a proposed trastuzumab biosimilar, is safe and effective as a neoadjuvant treatment in HER2—positive early breast cancer, according to research presented at the 2017 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting.

Research presented at the 2017 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting showed that SB3, a proposed biosimilar to trastuzumab, has comparable efficacy, safety, immunogenicity, and pharmacokinetics to the reference product based on the breast pathological complete response.

After switching studies, research in patients with breast cancer receiving neoadjuvant myelosuppressive chemotherapy has found clinical equivalence between filgrastim and its biosimilar, according to results presented at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

The diagnosis of stage I disease increased for female breast cancer, colorectal cancer, and lung cancer following implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), according to research presented at the 2017 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting in Chicago.

This week, the top managed care stories included more twists in Senate Republicans' efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act; a Medicare fraud sweep targeted opioid distribution; and the CDC reported 30 million Americans now have diabetes.