Oncology

Researchers from the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute and Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Texas Southwestern may have found the ultimate drivers of glioblastoma cell proliferation.

Expansion of Medicaid coverage prior to the authorization of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010 reduced the uninsured rate in New York State, but did not improve access to cancer surgery.

At the 58th annual meeting of the 58th American Society of Hematology, representatives from 2 national clinical trials, Beat AML and NCI-MATCH, detailed how they were incorporating genomic profiling to assign patients to different treatment arms.

An analysis of cancer death records across the country, by researchers at the University of Washington, has identified clusters of counties that had a particularly high rate of mortality depending on the cancer type.

Researchers implementing the TAPUR trial have encountered some difficulties, particularly in filling the study cohorts, said Pam Mangat, MS, associate director TAPUR study at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). However, the ASCO team is dedicated to forging ahead and addressing those challenges.

A system-wide immune response, not just a local response limited to the tumor, is what determines successful remission following cancer immunotherapy.

While one study identified novel mutations and gene amplifications, the other found a wider gap in racial disparity with respect to mortality rates.

Although national guidelines call for men and women at average risk for colorectal cancer (CRC) to begin screening for the disease at age 50, by some estimates, compliance is a mere 38%.

Disease status, MUD/MRD donor, myeloablative conditioning regimen, GVHD prophylaxis other than tacrolimus/sirolimus, and Medicare and/or Medicaid as payer are significant predictors for cost of care in patient with acute leukemia who undergo allogenic hematopoietic cell transplant (AHCT).

Patients diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) who relapsed following first-line treatment had higher rates of healthcare utilization and greater costs than the patients who had not relapsed.

Initiated by the American Board of Internal Medicine, Choosing Wisely® is a campaign that has seen participation by a number of different national medical organizations to promote conversations between clinicians and patients to ensure adequate, evidence-based care.

The Information Exchange and Data Transformation initiative at the FDA uses oncology data from not only clinical trials but also electronic health records and biosensors. This patient-centered approach brings research to the real world, as many oncology patients are excluded from clinical trials, said Sean Khozin, MD, MPH, senior medical officer at the FDA.

The state of current software systems, primarily electronic medical records, is a significant barrier to implementing successful health IT tools, said Jonathan Hirsch, founder and president of Syapse. He also explained some of the solutions developed by Syapse to address these challenges, like improving the software’s integration capabilities and making it more usable for providers.

Outgoing FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, MD, has announced that Richard Pazdur, MD, who was serving as the interim director, will now be heading the Oncology Center of Excellence.

This week, the top managed care stories included news that Republicans will introduce legislation to replace the Affordable Care Act, a report found the abortion rate hit a historic low, and results showed Januvia is safe for the oldest patients, even if they have cardiovascular risk.

At the 2016 annual meeting, the American Society of Hematology introduced the “Choosing Wisely Champions” to recognize the efforts of practitioners who are working to eliminate costly and potentially harmful overuse of tests and procedures.

A collaborative study has concluded that genomic assays can be successfully used to identify diagnostic, prognostic, and treatment-relevant alterations and can help guide precision treatment decisions for pediatric brain tumors.

The improved expansion of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells indicates a deeper clinical response.

A new report released by the American Cancer Society indicates that while the cancer-related death rate was higher among blacks than in whites in 2014, the racial gap could reduce as minority patients increasingly gain access to insurance and subsequent healthcare.

Despite the complexities associated with treating older patients diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL), patients in the RESONATE-2 trial continue to present a favorable response to single-agent ibrutinib at a follow-up of 29 months.

The results showed that obinutuzumab-based immunochemotherapy and maintenance improved progression-free survival in treatment-naïve patients with follicular lymphoma.

A study in a mouse model found that mice receiving chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T immunotherapy plus ibrutinib demonstrated longer overall survival and reduced cytokine production than the mice not treated with ibrutinib.

Data from electronic health records aren’t always helpful for oncologists, which is why the founders of Cancer Outcomes Tracking and Analysis (COTA) developed a platform that stratifies patients by relevant characteristics, said Stuart Goldberg, MD, chief medical officer, COTA, John Theurer Cancer Center.

The trial, evaluating the programmed death ligand-1 inhibitor durvalumab, alone or in combination with tremelimumab, versus platinum-based chemotherapy, has refined its endpoints to include overall survival (OS) along with progression-free survival.

According to a new study, in addition to tumor type, stage, and the presence of comorbidities, patients receiving cisplatin-based treatments might be at an increased risk of venous thromboembolism.

This study measured the value of survival gains attributable to the introduction of 3 novel therapies for myelodysplastic syndromes.

At the 58th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting & Exposition, Jan Joseph Melenhorst, PhD, presented results of a study evaluating biomarkers of response to anti-CD19 CAR T-cell treatment in patients diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

Phase 3 results from the LyMa trial have shown that rituximab, after autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT), prolongs event-free survival, progression-free survival, and overall survival (OS) in previously untreated young patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) following ASCT.

Early phase 1 results show that including the cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 inhibitor palbociclib in the treatment plan of patients with mantle cell lymphoma can help overcome resistance to ibrutinib.

In high-risk patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells of defined composition can be administered with an acceptable early toxicity.