Latest Conference Articles

Coronavirus disease 2019 disparities persist in our most vulnerable communities because of the financial necessity to continue working, as well as the lack of employment opportunities that enable their residents to work remotely. They are more likely to be considered essential workers, and that increases their exposure to the virus, explained Blythe Adamson, PhD, MPH, principal quantitative scientist at Flatiron Health.

Getting the full picture of genetic testing results requires that patients have access to genetic counselors who can evaluate individual risk.

A picture is emerging picture of what patients with cancer face under coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): They are more likely to be older or have underlying health problems, which are known to make the virus more deadly. But the treatments that can stop cancer could also put that at risk.

Compared with ibrutinib, zanubrutinib appears to have more of a benefit for patients with regards to less atrial fibrillation, hypertension, and other cardiac effects, explained Constantine S. Tam, MBBS, MD, clinical hematologist, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, Australia.

Telemedicine has grown from about 10% of all patient visits, before the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, to almost 90% at present, and it isn’t going away anytime soon, noted Sara L. Douglas, PhD, RN, the Gertrude Perkins Oliva Professor in Oncology Nursing and associate dean for research at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.

"Our patients are the reasons we do what we do. They are the reason we do the work," said outgoing ASCO President Howard A. “Skip” Burris III, MD, FASCO, FACP, during his opening address on the second day of this year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology conference.

Zanubrutinib, a second-generation BTK inhibitor, is approved by FDA to treat mantle cell lymphoma.

An experimental glioblastoma therapy with promising 12-month results may also have potential with other treatment-resistant cancers, according to Jeffrey Skolnick, MD, vice president, clinical development, Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. Results are being presented during the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2020 annual meeting.

Inadequate access to health care can truly be a life or death matter, so health care policy designed to improve access to care, as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is, can have a fundamental effect on making progress against cancer-related mortality and improving the quality of the care delivered, noted Fumiko Chino, MD, assistant attending radiation oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

The results have important implications for managed care. Many patients in the study who today would receive surgery and chemotherapy would see a recurrence. In addition, the ability to treat these patients more effectively at earlier stages raises new questions about the need to conduct more lung cancer screening.

The lead author said the findings were a step forward for biomarker studies and would change clinical practice.

Cost savings are likely to occur should payers switch from originator bevacizumab or rituximab to their respective biosimilars, according to research from 2 studies presented at the Virtual 2020 International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) meeting.

The presentation at Virtual ISPOR 2020 found that 7% of a group of Medicare beneficiaries with type 2 diabetes was experiencing food insecurity, a rate the lead author found "alarming."

More than one-quarter of elderly women with HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer did not receive care in accordance with National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) treatment guidelines, and that was linked to higher mortality as well as higher Medicare costs.

A new report shows just how much disease modifying therapies (DMTs) have changed the economic landscape of treating multiple sclerosis.

Presented at Virtual ISPOR 2020, researchers examined the efficacy of a machine learning approach in detecting predictors of Parkinson disease (PD), with an additional study testing the use of a statistical model to predict severity of PD.

Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) must be updated to reflect the fact that some patients discontinue biologics and swap in other products, the authors concluded.

Exacerbations of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) can be costly if they are frequent, and early detection programs for COPD may help offset these costs, according to research from 2 studies presented at the 2020 International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) virtual conference.

Although the total cost of asthma was more than $80 billion in 2013, the expansion of Medicaid in 2014 aided patients with asthma, according to 2 studies presented at the 2020 International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) virtual conference.

At the Virtual ISPOR 2020 conference, researchers presented data on treatment patterns, inpatient and outpatient visits, and pharmacy costs incurred by migraineurs.

Two studies presented at the Virtual 2020 ISPOR conference examined health care resource utilization and health-related quality of life in interstitial lung disease.

When deciding which treatments to cover, states and commercial payers must wrestle with opportunity costs as new therapeutics come to market. A panel at Virtual ISPOR 2020 discussed some of the factors that go into those decisions.

In 2 abstracts presented at the Virtual ISPOR 2020 meeting, researchers discuss how “OFF” episodes among patients with Parkinson disease may contribute to an increased degree of burden for respective caregivers, with patient preferred on-demand treatments for these episodes also detailed.

At the opening session of this year's Virtual ISPOR 2020 conference, panelists shared their views on what future health care systems can learn from the current pandemic crisis.

Two of the panelists appearing during the Virtual ISPOR 2020 meeting preview what's needed in improving value assessment: Lou Garrison, PhD, of the University of Washington, and Leah Howard, JD, of the National Psoriasis Foundation.

Despite the immediate distraction from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), panelists at the 2020 Virtual Community Oncology Conference said community oncologists must keep pressure on pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) as the 2020 campaign heats up—lest they lose the momentum to rein PBM practices within the umbrella of drug pricing reform.

The bright spot of telemedicine's success during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic cannot overshadow the stresses on patients and practices, which will both have ongoing challenges when the pandemic ends, said panelists during a legislative update on day 2 of the 2020 Virtual Community Oncology Conference, convened by the Community Oncology Alliance.

There's a way to boost participation in clinical trials and modernize the cumbersome process of patient accrual, noted current ASCO President Howard A. “Skip” Burris, MD, FACP, FASCO, on day 2 of Virtual COA 2020. It means shifting clinical trials out of hospitals and tertiary care centers and bringing them to the patients.

Day 1 of Virtual COA 2020, this year’s Community Oncology Conference, kicked off with the panel discussion, “Top Oncology Issues Now & Looking Ahead,” led by Bo Gamble, director of Strategic Practice Initiatives at the Community Oncology Alliance. Topics covered ran the gamut: from Zoom being everyone’s new middle name to telehealth to caring for patients’ medical and social needs and beyond.

Oncology practices could use more time to become accustomed to 2-sided risk even without a global pandemic, but the current crisis makes the need more urgent, say payment reform leaders at the Community Oncology Alliance virtual conference.