Oncology

A lag in policy changes has resulted in significant variation across palliative care programs for treating advanced illnesses. A recent shift in policy has, however, allowed small-scale testing of community-based palliative care delivery and some innovations in other delivery systems.

The FDA has released an updated safety announcement following a fresh review of data on the type 2 diabetes treatment pioglitazon to confirm that the drug may increase a person’s likelihood of developing bladder cancer.

A study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology has found that step therapy can be cost-effective in patients with cancer who are under psychological duress.

Barry Russo, CEO of The Center for Cancer & Blood Disorders, said that his practice continues to collect quality and claims data from a number of sources, even though it isn’t easy. Russo also said that payers are not particularly interested in participating in a value framework, instead choosing to focus on the oncology care model (OCM).

An exhaustive study conducted by researchers at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research has found that a woman’s social network can significantly affect her chances of survival following breast cancer.

Palliative care is an underutilized and powerful resource in the drive towards value. In the current article, we review published evidence and highlight how Medicare Advantage plans, accountable care organizations, and oncology practices can benefit from concurrent palliative care under value-based payments.

The CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report recommends that Medicaid expansion states should direct more attention to smoking cessation programs to improve access and raise awareness about these programs among beneficiaries and providers.

By using telemedicine and relocating the center of care to where a person lives, we have an opportunity to address more unmet demand for palliative care, while giving more control to the seriously ill to meet their stated needs.

This week, the top stories in managed care included poll results that show growing numbers of Republicans want the Affordable Care Act scaled back instead of repealed, Jardiance received a new indication for patients with type 2 diabetes, and CareMore reported care coordination gaps for seniors.

At the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, researchers announced the creation of a model to identify patients with triple negative breast cancer who are most likely to respond to chemotherapy.

This article examines the integration of palliative care in a community cancer center-an example of how one program integrated palliative care.

A panel of 21 expert clinicians from the field conducted a systematic review of meta-analyses randomized clinical trials, observational studies, and clinical experience, to develop recommendations that have been published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

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.

Representatives from the Beat acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and National Cancer Institute-Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice (NCI-MATCH), which incorporate genomic profiling to assign patients to different treatment arms, provided an insight on trial design and a progress report.

Immuno-oncology will be an important part of cancer care in the future, but probably not the only part, predicted Robert W. Carlson, MD, CEO of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. He also explained how patient advocacy and an enduring healthcare system are essential to the advancement of cancer care.

Older patients diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL) continue to present a favorable response to single-agent ibrutinib, at a follow-up of 29 months, in phase 3 of the RESONATE-2 trial.

Pam Mangat, MS, associate director TAPUR study at the American Society of Clinical Oncology, says that the organization has developed a number of initiatives to educate oncology practitioners on the potential of precision medicine, such as testing guidelines, online courses, a virtual tumor board, and clinical trials.

The Special Symposium on Quality at the 58th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting & Exposition, looked at how health information technology can be utilized to improve healthcare quality, enhance patient-provider shared decision-making, and facilitate efforts in quality research.

Phase 3 results from the LyMa trial show that rituximab maintenance therapy 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).

Innovative health IT tools like those developed by Carevive help maximize the balance between patient self-management and care team engagement, which is especially important in the era of value-based care, according to Carrie Stricker, PhD, RN, AOCN, chief clinical officer and co-founder of Carevive.

A cancer patient’s comorbid diseases have important implications for setting goals and selecting treatment, said Joseph Alvarnas, MD, of the City of Hope and editor-in-chief of Evidence-Based Oncology. Clinicians must keep comorbidities in mind as they base oncology care upon that person as an individual.

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

Distinct genetic signatures can help distinguish responders from nonresponders of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell treatment in patients diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

Surrogate endpoints, or endpoints other than overall survival, will help accelerate drug discovery and provide additional solutions for patients, according to David Fabrizio, of Foundation Medicine, Inc. However, alternate endpoints are not without their drawbacks.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells have been dramatically effective in treating B-cell cancers, according to David L. Porter, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. He also identified the use of CAR T-cells for treating solid tumors as a research area that will see more development in the coming years.

NICE recommends pembrolizumab for use in advanced lung cancer following additional data review and a further discount in price.

Research from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute, published in Nature, has identified genomic changes that could explain the development of testicular cancer and why this disease is more responsive to chemotherapy.

This week, the top stories in managed care included the president-elect's picks for HHS and CMS, the American Diabetes Association addressed psychosocial care for patients with diabetes, and the American Society of Clinical Oncology released criteria on creating clinical pathways.

Interim data analysis of a phase 1 trial of chimeric antigen receptor-T cells (CAR-T) targeting the B-cell maturation antigen in heavily pretreated patients with multiple myeloma has identified an objective anti-tumor response, with limited toxicity.

Statin use was associated with a reduction in all-cause and multiple myeloma-specific mortality.